Re: RH and GNOME
As a person that purchased a "full freight" Red-Hat distribution and
then was unable to obtain _any_ official technical support, I feel
qualified to 'bash Red-Hat'... However, I don't. I will explain
why I feel that Red-Hat 'let me down' on occasions.
This thread is very opinion based so here is another:
While the Red-Hat web site promotes Red-Hat (what a surprise), it
seems pretty clear to me that Red-Hat also makes it perfectly clear
that they are a _distribution_ of Linux (as in there is more than
one possible distribution).
I agree that the "free download" of Red-Hat Linux is not blatantly
obvious but it is also not hidden either.
Finally, I also agree with those that have expressed that Red-Hat is
not inherently 'evil' because of their attempt to be a viable
commercial enterprise through the production and distribution of
a Linux system.
While I am sufficiently paranoid that I have a basic (initial at
least) distrust of commercial enterprises (a distrust which pales
in comparison to my distrust of government), I also believe that
there still are people in the commercial world (often with, though
not often enough "controlling influence") that have a high degree
of personal integrity and high ethical standards.
Red-Hat has the same need for a perception of differentiation in
their 'product' as does Debian. From a commercial standpoint it
is essential to the survival of Red-Hat that a sufficient number
of people believe that there are advantages to buying the Red-Hat
distribution/support.
Not to raise the issues that 'drove a wedge' between the Debian
developers and Bruce but at least for some users there really
are advantages to Red-Hat, Caldera, SuSE, etc.
Maybe I am too naive here with this one, but when it looks like
"Brother Bill" is setting up to either buy or bury Red-Hat, then
I will be worrying about their "corporate integrity".
--
best,
-bill
bleach@BellSouth.net
b.leach@usa.net LinuxPC@Hotmail.com
from a 1996 Micro$loth ad campaign:
"The less you know about computers the more you want Micro$oft!"
See! They do get some things right!
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