To all: 1rst question is: Who do your customers think write the packages they are using in RH? Comment 1: It isn't Red Hat (well a few are..but only a few).
2nd question is: How do you explain the price benefits? Comment 2: You shouldn't be telling anyone that Red Hat is actually fixing all of bugs....if you are, and I'm not saying you are. But, I am making a point. Red Hat, at the end of the day, is still based on open source. Red Hat only helps along the development and only maintains packages they wrote with the exception of a few programs. 3rd question is: What is wrong with third party consultants for support? Comment 3: Most companies use 3rd party consultants for support for other operating systems. Even in the case of Windows. Rarely do companies actually have to go directly to MS. Most of the time there is either an in house admin or a 3rd party consultant who is used as needed. Same case for Sun or IBM OS and machines. Remember most of the applications with Red Hat are not supported by RH. Only the RH packages. Sure, they give you RPMs, but I'm sure we'll always be able to get out hands on these. Just won't be able to use auto-update. Still compare this with MS licensing and especially 2003 Server. You won't come out ahead. Do you use Open Office or Star Office? Do you use any other free software? If so, how much have you contributed to it? Red Hat generally contributes to many of their incorporated packages. Bug fixes and the like, but they are not the first line of defense. The project developers are. Currently RH isn't approaching the cost of Windows. You need to compare Windows Advanced Server to Red Hat Advanced then figure in 10 hours of MS support a year. You'll pay as much for those 10 hours as you will for Enterprise RH software and support all together. RH Advanced can use multi-procs. If you need more than 4 procs you need Windows Advanced Server, however, most "small" businesses can use Fedora and run without a hitch. Who needs multi-processors is the question. Also, don't use beta releases. Use a release. Look at how many users are on FreeBSD and Slackware. They run fine. Red Hat will have developers working on Fedora. This way they have their people and open source programmers working together. It's a good thing. If you need multi procs and what not....then buy the Advanced or Enterprise (Enterprise will handle 2). You won't beat that price with Microsoft. Not at this moment anyways. Maybe if they reduce their prices. Home XP Pro (not a server) costs as much as the prices flying around in here (for a work station). The argument dealing with RHN. I think Fedora could have it's on FHN or something. I also believe that Red Hat could sell some support packages for this. Maybe have some good third party companies they endorse, which means if they endorse them there had better be a reason other than because they are willing to do it. I would hope so anyways. As far as the argument for a small business having to have something like Enterprise. I don't think this is the case. I think businesses think they can charge for their products, but get off scott free with the software and infrastucture costs, and their tech departments still want to have someone to point fingers at (what tech department there is). Corporations seem to be following suit as well. That's just not feasible. What is wrong with using WS? You can download the system, and you have a RHN subscription for $199.00. This is of course if Fedora isn't your pot of tea. You can always pay a system admin if you need support. The price of the system is the price of your support. MS support isn't free nor cheap. Try to purchase 2 hours worth, and tell me what you could have for that price. ;-) The real point is being missed here. The open source products have an edge many of us like because of that fact. Open Source. We trust developers in groups as they are to provide something they are proud of. Many of these projects finance themselves with support contracts. Which I think is awesome. Many of these developers make a name for themselves this way. So, they are not going to make bad software. Also just to note, every Linux distro uses open source software bundled together. The support you get from RH will eventually come from developers at projects. Pay or don't pay, you'll still come out cheaper than an MS solution, and you'll not be getting any letters in the mail from Red Hat explaining to you why they have an auditor coming to examine your infrastructure for license infringments either. Whether you have them or not. That's MS and Borland style. Just remember 10 hours of MS support will cost you over 800.00 US. Wade -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
