Re: evan leibovitch and the LPI certification tests
On Tue, 18 May 1999, David Welton wrote:
> So, if this really bothers you, do something about it. Make a company
> and start marketing the hell out of Debian. That's most of what
> Redhat is - marketing. That's not a bad thing, necessarily -
> marketing is what it takes to get your name out in the world. It
> might be nice if it weren't so important, but it is. Deal with it.
Now, see, I really would if I could. But I've got a full time job at a
startup. That translates to 70 hour weeks sometimes. More often than not.
On top of that, I'm already busy advancing Linux on the RS/6000, catching
miscellaneous bugs here and there in arch/ppc, and pulling my hair out
fixing design flaws in things.
> As far as Big Companies go, redhat isn't so bad. Be very thankful
> they didn't go the caldera route, where it seems as if they really
> don't want to GPL anything they don't have to. Instead, they spend a
> lot of money funding guys like Alan Cox. And making money for
> themselves - but that's not a bad thing - that's the goal of most
> companies.
But how do you know they won't go the Caldera route down the line? The
fact that they're only in it for the money doesn't really bug me. The fact
that they would release such buggy and insecure distributions, however,
does. Till they get a real grip on quality control, you won't catch me
installing it.
And what about their 'partners'? I have yet to see one of their contracts.
And I'm just getting this eerie feeling that, well, it's an exclusive
contract. If you offer RedHat, you only offer RedHat as far as Linux go,
at least on preinstalled systems. VA Research no longer offers SuSE, or
Windows either, on any of their systems. Only RedHat 5.2. That bugs me.
> So, if you truly believe in some sort of ideology where making money
> is bad, that's one thing - don't single out redhat for criticism. If
> you are bitter about their success, do something about it instead of
> just whining.
Making money isn't bad. It's how you make it that makes it bad.
> Sorry for the long post, and I don't really mean to pick on Phillip,
> but these rantings are getting kind of lame. They sound, in some
> sense, a bit juvenile, and not worthy of our time.
True, but some of them have brought up some pretty valid points.
Especially yours.
If we don't market Debian, to be blunt, we're going to get fucked. This
LPI moron obviously has some serious press contacts. He's got personal
reasons. The more damage he can do to Debian, the less credible we seem,
and the more power Caldera and RedHat have. And he didn't even mention
Slackware, which IMNSHO, is probably the *BEST* distribution if you're
going to tinker like hell with it.
Bottom line is, unless we can make marketshare magically appear, those
people hiding over in debian-pr and all of us here had better get off our
asses (those of us who can, that is;) and *SELL SELL SELL!* (Sorry, had to
say it.;)
> Personally, I'm happy to know that I'm involved in making a kick ass
> OS, and as long as no one messes with my ability to do that, I'm fine.
Heh. I won't be happy till Linux is running on every architecture there
is. I don't give a damn how obscure, old, or obsolete it is. I want to see
Linux on it. Hrmmmm.. z80 port, anyone? :)
-prj
Reply to: