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RedHat:with morons like this who needs competition
"Red Hat's chief executive [Szulik] has said that Linux needs to mature further before home users will get a positive experience from the operating system, saying they should choose Windows instead."
http://www.silicon.com/software/os/0,39024651,39116741,00.htm
This is pretty much the last straw for RedHat. They were finally getting some traction among a wider audience. Well, first they price their offerings way out of the market such that MS products look really cheap, now the CEO says everybody to go with Windows even to those who were already using Linux as desktop!
RedHat used to have a great line of cheap RedHat Linux'es, but apparently, $50/year per machine for updates was way too low for the new CEO. Now the updates will be dropped by Apr 2004, that is for the RHL9 released in Apr 2003. The other versions expire sooner.
RedHat server and workstation versions are now close to or more than Windows. Plus the subscription for updates which has to be renewed each year. Thus people who put their time into setting up RedHat linux boxes got shafted, because the assumption that there would be a stable cheap version such that their time investment is compensated by software price savings is no longer valid.
People who promoted RedHat at work took a huge credibility hit because why would somebody learn more expensive software which is better only in some situations ...
Has any company ever managed to take the market from the high end? It is usually the opposite, but RedHat junked the low end altogether.
RedHat has a brand name, but how long will that last when people who promoted them got shafted so badly?
Overall, well done, Mr. Szulik!
Mr Curiousity
Sunday, November 16, 2003
In my estimation they have finally decided that they can't lose a dollar on every sale but make it up on volume. If the freeloaders are distressed, so be it.
Their pricing sure makes XP look like quite the deal.
Mitch & Murray (from downtown)
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Looking on the bright side, there's still Debian, Mandrake, Suse, Knoppix, Gentoo...
I think it's a good thing that RedHat isn't selling low-cost Linux anymore. As a desktop operating system, RedHat wasn't (in my opinion) particularly good.
Keith
Sunday, November 16, 2003
+1. For desktop usage, it would be darn near my LAST choice.
Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Redhat realized that a new version every 6 months was too much churn for businesses so they developed the RHEL. Then they realized that the regular line was not bringing in revenue so they scapped it. Smart move. I also agree that Linux is not ready for the desktop except for technical people. The Redhat CEO basically means it is not ready for Grandma. He is right.
Mike
Sunday, November 16, 2003
"If the freeloaders are distressed, so be it."
I can assure you that freeloaders with knowledge will be just as fine as they were before. There are other choices out there, and there always will be ...
But realistically, why would anyone now bring RedHat into their organization? More expensive - yes, more training needed - yes, backstabbed supporters - yes. That is a really smart move, is not it?
Mr Curiousity
Sunday, November 16, 2003
They would bring it in if they felt that Red Hat's enterprise distribution was the best thing going. I'd imagine that their server customers are far different from most of their desktop "customers", and so there's not much to be lost here. In fact, that's why they finally made the move - they woke up and realized that the desktop thing just wasn't happening. It's about time.
Linux on the server is a good idea; Linux on my desktop is a poor idea (at the moment). The former has a somewhat valid business plan behind it, the latter doesn't. I would assume that the statement was meant to try and position Red Hat as a big-business enterprise vendor as soon as possible by completely disowning the desktop version of the product. Perhaps it wasn't the best choice of words, but they definitely had to make the switch.
Dan J
Sunday, November 16, 2003
At least he's being honset. RedHat linux really isn't meant for desktop use and if their CEO said otherwise he would sound like a bit of an idiot.
Daniel Searson
Sunday, November 16, 2003
It seems to be more about inserting words into Szulik's mouth...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/33766.html
Steve P
Sunday, November 16, 2003
And, ladies and gentleman, RedHat hasn't really pulled out of the desktop market. They're still very much there; Except they shifted their focus from "everyone" to "enterprises".
Fedora _is_ the desktop redhat for freeloaders. It's just that it's based much more on volunteer work and much less on RedHat employees. They can't keep calling it "RedHat" for that reason. But it looks like Fedora still is the desktop redhat.
Ori Berger
Sunday, November 16, 2003
FYI, Fedora is not nearly as well tested as any of the previous RedHat's, and people found quite a lot of issues there. Also, the support will last only a few months. That is why RedHat did not want to have their name next to Fedora.
I still don't understand how they plan to get into the Enterprise where everybody is frigging conservative. Plus they just backstabbed all those people who were pushing RedHat citing cost and freedom from draconian licenses as the selling points.
Killing RedHat linux line effectively removes the entry point into more lucrative segments.
Mr Curiousity
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Where I work we paid for redhat support and updates for the 6 servers that ran redhat. Our main servers were 7.2, the most recent additions 9. Facing having to redo the servers in order to be supported I am having a very hard time continuing our use of RedHat. To end of life 7.2 I can sort of understand, it is a bit old, but 9 that is too much.
The real question we are trying to answer is who to go with now? Need to have that answered by the new year I guess.
Jeff
Sunday, November 16, 2003
Curiousity,
>But realistically, why would anyone now bring RedHat into >their organization?
The short answer is "RedHat Advanced Server".
Patrik
Monday, November 17, 2003
Why bother?
http://www.linuxiso.org/
Enjoy Coce
Monday, November 17, 2003
Red hat Servers could still be cheaper than Windows Server as they have no client access license fees.
I guess it's now time for Oracle to accquire Redhat ...
Rick Tang
Monday, November 17, 2003
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