Re: RedHat more debian like?
On Sat, Jul 26, 2003 at 10:24:13PM +1200, cr wrote:
> On Saturday 26 July 2003 00:56, Colin Watson wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 25, 2003 at 07:10:02AM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > > RH employs many kernel, GNOME and PostgreSQL hackers.
> >
> > Not to mention even a few Debian developers.
>
> Besides, if GNU/Linux ever becomes a force to be reckoned with in the
> business world, it will be because of companies like RH, Suse, maybe
> IBM, IMO. I know the way corporate beancounters think. They don't
> believe something free can be any good, and they *want* to pay for
> everything, they want to buy it from a company so they can hold the
> supplier responsible for making it work. They think, if they've paid
> for support, they'll get it, and if they haven't, they have no
> contractual basis for demanding support.
>
> I think they have the vision of a flatworm, but that's the way they
> are. So they may buy Red Hat, they would certainly buy IBM, but
> they're extremely unlikely to touch Debian unless somebody *sells* it
> to them for enough money.
>
> Now I expect someone will tell me their company does use Debian -
> well, lucky you, you work for a company whose managers' IQ exceeds
> their waist size (in inches). ;)
Both my company and my previous company use Debian. :) Of course, this
is mostly because I work in software development and have always had
other Debianites, if not even other long-time Debian developers, around.
At least in the near term, I think the future for Debian in business is
likely to be through companies like HP (which I pick semi-randomly
because Bdale gave an excellent talk on HP and Debian at DebConf) who
are willing to put effort into both developing Debian and selling it to
their customers. Having big names in our favour is the easiest way to
become accepted quickly in that world.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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