Re: Debian and Redhat - are most linux users missing the point?
On Sat, 27 Feb 1999, Frankie wrote:
> A couple of weeks ago there was a poll, which showed that redhat hat had
> about 2 or three times as many users as debian, and that redhat was first
> with debian was second, but far closer to the other distros than to redhat.
Understandable given the amount of press they get. How much is the Debian
PR staff paid vs. Red Hat? How many drinks, rounds of golf, or theatre
tickets does the Debian PR staff hand out to various journalists?
>
> Now I may be wrong, but I believe that many (if not the majority) of linux
> users are attracted to linux because its free, and because it is symbolic of
> the backlash against the large corporation ethos of many of its competitors,
> rather than its reliability (let alone it's ease of use :-))
I would say you are wrong. I think most people use Debian because of its
technical superiority, not for political reasons. I have brought Debian
into our workplace because it is better. I will also dump it in a minute
if they compromise quality in exchange for political correctness. I have a
love/hate relationship with Debian as it is now. Their attitudes about
certain things have nearly caused me to abandon it a few times but the
truth is that I have found nothing better. I have wanted to develop my own
distro based on Debian for use by us at work and may well get that done
this year. A major devel project (commercial one) has delayed me for
nearly 9 months.
>
> OK, so the two leading distros are redhat and debian. debian, on the one
> hand, is run as a voluntary organisation etc, whereas redhat is (or is going
> the way of) a corporation, in the sense that it employs programmers, is very
> far ahead of any of the competition and (arguably although I think)
> sacrifices reliability over commercial factors. (eg rushing distros to get
> them out to coincide with the marketers strategy).
> I know that redhat have done a good job in promoting linux for the masses
> etc, but does redhat seem like the next MS to you?
I would not be surprised that if Red Hat ever went public, Microsoft would
buy them the next day. There would be very little that the management of
Red Hat could do about it. The stock is on the free market ... Microsoft
just buys it all.
> On the basis that linux is soundly based on ideology and a belief that the
> internet should remain free, debian may well be the best distribution, and
> on that basis, redhat the worst.
Whatever ... it is about the code, screw the psycho-socio babble.
>
> Yet most linux users opt for redhat.
Because it is the only distribution that many have heard of. If you look
at the big news stories, they talk about Red Hat, Caldera, and S.u.S.E.
Why? because there is no money in it for them to talk about Debian. No PR
person to stroke them, whisper sweet nothings in their ear and maybe buy
them a round of golf at a fancy club. You have to pay to get press unless
you really do something that is noteworthy.
> I think that debian needs to adopt a (slightly) aggressive marketing policy,
> to increase its userbase. The fact that it doesn't have professional
I fail to see how having more users will make Debian better. It WOULD make
it easier to "sell" to IT management if they have heard of it.
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