Re: Suggested press release in reaction to RHAT dropping sparc and alpha
On Thu, 26 Dec 2002, Martin Schulze wrote:
> I don't exactly like this sort of propaganda. It doesn't sound correct
> or fair to me to send out press releases that reply to other vendors'
> press releases and directly intend to grab users from them.
>
They've already said they are not interested in supporting those users.
Would you rather they ended up with Solaris instead?
I agree that my original wording was overly aggressive. However now that
it has been toned down a bit, IMHO it provides valuable information to
users of Linux on Sparcs who may not be aware of all their options.
> Debian has, in the past, always expressed the benefits of its
> distribution, independly of what other vendors do or don't.
Yes and isn't the fact we don't "end of life" distributions when there is
no more money to be made from them a a benefit?
> This is marketing propaganda that Debian should not join. "the
> premier Linux distribution" is something a third party can say, but
> not the one affected. Otherwise we would stop being authentic.
>
Ah but I said "the premier Linux distribution created by the community for
the community" This may be tooting our own horn but it is factually
correct is it not?
> Maybe it would be more helpful to post some information on the
> redhat-alpha and redhat-sparc lists so those people that may be in
> trouble soon, will be informed.
>
Wouldn't this be seen as even more belligerent?
> However, ceasing support for Alpha and Sparc by Red Hat does not imply
> the demise of Red Hat Linux for Alpha or Sparc. Please note that
> there's still mips/redhat and m68k/redhat even though Red Hat Inc. has
> never supported these architectures.
I know. There is a distribution called Aurora which is basically Red Hat
recompiled for Sparcs. However the main point of using something like Red
Hat is for the commercial support. If you are going to run a rinky-dink
distro made by a couple of volunteers, why not run a rinky-dink distro
made by a lot of volunteers? :-)
Hence, telling users of rh/sparc
> and rh/alpha to switch to Debian because they can't use their system
> anymore, can't upgrade etc. would probably be wrong. Red Hat Inc.,
> however, won't support them and won't create security updates for
> them, but they will most probably be able to continue running their
> machines with a Red Hat (like/based) distribution.
>
Maybe so (and I'm not suggesting we try and scare people into using
Debian) but think about what causes people to switch distros? Usually
they stick to what they first installed which is why there are still so
many Slackware users out there. It takes a catastrophic event to make
people switch and this is one of them. So what is so wrong about
informing people who may be looking around anyway of one more choice they
may wish to consider?
--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar@debian.org>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/
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