On Fri, Dec 16, 2005, Bernhard Reiter wrote: ... >Note that there is some competition between OpenPKG and the operating system >vendors. This is a problem for customers. >They want to have a tested Linux (the kernel) and core technologies (like >libc, filesystem) with certification for a hardware. >Now RedHat, Mandriva or Novell are charging for this _and_ the applications, >like Postfix. > >So if I buy Redhat and then use OpenPKG, I am paying for something that I do >not use, and would like to pay OpenPKG for. Just additionally paying for >OpenPKG makes this far more expensive of course. > >It is not easy to solve this.
I have a differing view on this. We're building a product based on SuSE Linux Enterprise 9 (SLES9), mostly because Novell contracts to provide support for the system for an extended period of time. The support we want is primary kernel level and drivers so we're not fighting the contiual battle of changing Linux distributions. Relying on the vendor's versions of critical components like postfix makes one more reliant on the vendor, something we want to avoid given the stability of commercial vendors in the *nix world. If it's critical to our systems, we want to have control of the packages. We went to OpenPKG several years ago when Caldera Linux tanked, and we wanted to find a way to make our installations simpler, and independent of the underlying OS. In particular, we have been building *nix systems for over 20 years, with extensive replacement of the vendor's e-mail and other components so that we have a uniform interface on all our customer's systems. Prior to the move to OpenPKG, our modifications made it very difficult to implement vendor updates of their components (one of the more serious issues were perl and its modules). In summary, we go with a commercially supported release of Linux for longer term support of the basic OS and drivers, and pay somewhat of a premium for that support. We don't care what they do for e-mail, secure shell, etc. because we want to have control of these critical server components. Bill -- INTERNET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC UUCP: camco!bill PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way FAX: (206) 232-9186 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820; (206) 236-1676 URL: http://www.celestial.com/ Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity. It eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation. -- Johnny Hart ______________________________________________________________________ The OpenPKG Project www.openpkg.org User Communication List openpkg-users@openpkg.org
