[no subject]
>From: Ed Cogburn <ecogburn@greene.xtn.net>
>To: Debian-Users <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
>Subject: Re: Debian and Redhat - are most linux users missing the
point?
>
>> Would such a redhat CEO consider the ideas of the Linux Developers
>> as important as the marketing strategies of his new parent company?
>
>
> To be fair, RH has handled itself very 'honorably' up to this
>point, but as RH becomes increasing popular (or is bought out),
>will it continue to consider the larger Linux community? That's
>the question. And the answer is simple: Debian.
And I currently have no real complaint about RedHat Inc., and as long as
they are reasonably independent I doubt I ever will.
>
>> Will RH Linux become secondary to the success of a
>> proprietary version of unix? Maybe. Hopefully Debian won't.
>
>
> I don't see this. While Linux (regardless of which distribution
>we are talking about) might not affect the mainstream PC OS market
>any time in the future, its effect on the Unix world will be more
>pronounced and imminent. After all these years, no proprietary
>unix has come to dominate the Unix world, though they tried. For
>middle and low end uses as a server OS, Linux is ideal (if there
>is commercial support for it). I just don't see a commercial unix
>taking over, and pushing Linux aside (unless this commercial unix
>actually goes OpenSource).
>
I don't see any proprietary version of unix "taking" linux as a whole
over, but I think a commercial unix vendor could purchase a
company selling a particular distro of linux and negatively
influencing the distro's development. They could use this as a wedge to
cause problems within the Linux world (my paranoid side), but mainly I
see the commercial distribution being modified in ways that damage its
long-term viability as an alternative OS. Demanding special hardware
support and special customization to make it more compatible with the
commercial unix. (Smoothing the upgrade path, ie from a "cheapo Linux
x86 to a "real" unix on a risc-box) Which could be a great problem if
the most popular (and enduser friendly) version slowly gets strangled by
a commercial unix vendor. I think commercial vendors of unix will fight
against linux just as they fight eachother. They want control, rather
than merely what is best for the customer.
> The issue is how can Debian survive in a market where RH has
>become an 800 pound gorilla, and we're not talking about the
>personal end user market. The middle and low end of the server OS
>market is at the center of this topic. Debian will always be
>non-commercial, thats not at issue, nor will it disappear (if the
>polls are right, Deb may be #2 right now). Can a commercial
>company (which will be able to provide commercial level support)
>using Deb as its base distribution, ensure Deb's popularity in the
>market that matters at this time? Or can Deb keep up with RH in
>terms of market share, without a commercial company giving it
>visibility and 'legitimacy' in the server OS arena?
Then what is debian? A developer-only version linux? And is linux
nothing but a cheaper, more efficent way to make a fileserver,
webserver, etc. Or is it an alternative OS, that is dedicated to Open
Source and Open Protocols. A distro that really supports the GPL. Having
companies that provide support for Debian is a great, the more the
merrier, but we should be very cautious. One, Large "Debian Support,
Inc" making it's own distro with Debian as a base could become a 800lb
gorilla just as bad as microsoft or RH could ever be. This industry is
full of people and companies with great ideas getting totally screwed by
someone with a bigger marketing budget.
> The issue is how can Debian survive in a market where RH has
>become an 800 pound gorilla, and we're not talking about the
>personal end user market. The middle and low end of the server OS
>market is at the center of this topic. Debian will always be
>non-commercial, thats not at issue, nor will it disappear (if the
>polls are right, Deb may be #2 right now). Can a commercial
>company (which will be able to provide commercial level support)
>using Deb as its base distribution, ensure Deb's popularity in the
>market that matters at this time? Or can Deb keep up with RH in
>terms of market share, without a commercial company giving it
>visibility and 'legitimacy' in the server OS arena?
I think debian can disappear, if it doesn't have a real percentage of
enduser desktops. Anyone who ignores enduser desktops is setting debian
up for a rerun of Apple Incorporated. So many experts consider
endusers as stupid worthless people, but everyone starts out as one.
Hand them a Windows2000/MSN box, a Sun Netbox or a WebTV and they
probably will just point and click for the rest of their lives. If
instead they got a fully configured (Debian) Linux box, which they could
tinker on, with lots of useful help files, and pointers to info and
decent books then they could find out how cool computers can really be.
If linux and debian is going to be anything other than a minor niche OS,
then it must gain a share of the desktop market. See BeOS, see MacOS,
see OS/2 etc.....
I think Debian and Linux can be a lot more significant, a lot more than
just a cheaper, more efficient SCO or QNX. Getting debian into IT
departments and engineering labs are certainly important goals, but I
think Y2K and Microsoft's "Let's all upgrade to a cruddy Win98 so we can
upgrade to a broken Windows 2000" (Makes me think of the Paperboy 2000)
attitude will cause a lot of otherwise happy Microserfs to think twice.
I'd like to see linux capitalize on that.
A. Debianuser
>
>
>--
>Ed C.
>
>
>--
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