[Cumbria] Red Hat shoots itself in foot?

[Schwuk]

Michael Saunders said:
> I feel the same as I do with most Reg articles -- distressed with the
> sensationalism, hyperbole and general shoddy "journalism" contained
> therein.

Yes, 'El Reg' is not the most reliable of sources, is it... Red Hat have
obviously gotten too big for the Reg's liking...

> "Beginning with the 8.0 release, Red Hat will provide errata
> maintenance for at least 12 months from the date of initial release.
> At certain times, Red Hat may extend errata maintenance for certain
> popular releases of the operating system."

I did see this, but the problem is a lot of people (esp. managers) will read
this and only see the "12 months" bit, and decide to go elsewhere...

> Also, this is for the freely downloadable "community" version. In the
> 3rd/4th quarter of 2003, RH will be releasing their Advanced
> Workstation distro flavour which will, like its server sibling,
> provide much lengthier support.

OK, so there's an Advanced Server (costing $799 - $2499), and soon-to-be
Advanced Workstation ($?). Fine for the enterprise, but what about the SME
market? We've got RH Professional, but will that continue to exist with
Adv.Workstation?

> AND! There's been talk of RH producing a Personal Desktop distro too,
> which again would have a few years of life in it. Essentially, this
> article is leaping all over the fact that RH 8.0 is being EOLed
> quickly. RH have indicated that popular and stable releases may be
> given longer lifespans, their Advanced Server and WS versions will last
> much longer, and this is just scaremongering :)

Will a personal desktop really sell?

The article is scaremongering, but I also think that Red Hat are making a
mistake by focusing so much on the enterprise.

Personally, I don't care that 8.0 will be EOL'd as I will be upgrading to
8.1 as soon as it is out (then 8.2 ad infinitum...). Professionally, I will
continue to recommend RH, but I will now have to warn of the *stated* best
before date (that _may_ change, but also may not), and I know that this will
raises concerns...

> UnitedLinux is screwed. The only talented Linux company they have in
> that venture is SuSE -- and they'd be better trying to get bought out
> by IBM.

I always said they wouldn't get very far...
-- 
Schwuk