[Gllug] Cost of RedHat vs Ubuntu desktop support

[John Edwards]

On Tue, Jul 07, 2009 at 09:59:21AM +0100, Hari Sekhon wrote:
> John Edwards wrote:
>> On Mon, Jul 06, 2009 at 06:06:33PM +0100, Hari Sekhon wrote:
>> <snip>   
>>> Also, have you see how much Ubuntu charges for desktops? It's $250 
>>> per year for 9-5 support or $900 for 24x7 *per desktop*. That's 
>>> outrageous! Over years I think this racks up to way more than M$... 
>>> (although you probably get better support for that price but 
>>> still...)
>> <snip>

>> Ignoring the "Basic" support option (which is web-only with 2-day
>> response time) the cost of the cheapest option is $299 per year:
>> 	http://www.redhat.com/rhel/desktop/compare/
>>
>> RedHat support times are 9am-9pm EST for USA, or 9am-5pm EST for the
>> rest of the world. There is no 24x7 support option. I guess they don't
>> want to do any desktop support to companies working outside of the USA

> Redhat has previously said they aren't that interested in the desktop  
> market as they don't know how to make money out of it.
>
> The point I was making was it was expensive to go this route for  
> desktops, which it is. This is one reason why most organizations stick  
> to M$ desktops, the exception being IT folks who can install and support  
> their own workstations.
>
> I can't blame redhat for shunning the desktop market, it's not that easy  
> to turn a profit from it, and I have to say they continue to go from  
> strength to strength as a profitable company, so best of luck to them.

Do you realise how much bias you are showing here?

You say that when Ubuntu charges for desktop support that is
outrageous, but when RedHat charges more money for less support
then that is good business sense?


> Would you want to pay $900 *every year for every desktop machine* in  
> your organization? C'mon... and people talk about the never ending  
> treadmill of M$, this would be a more expensive and faster moving  
> treadmill, I don't know how many accountants or IT staff would thank you  
> for that...

Of course not, but how many organisations needs 24x7 support on
every desktop? Ubuntu is *not* forcing you to pay for this support.

And here is the main difference between Ubuntu and RedHat in this
area. RedHat *does* force you pay for every machine, which is
probably why they make a good profit.


-- 
#---------------------------------------------------------#
|    John Edwards   Email: john at cornerstonelinux.co.uk    |
#---------------------------------------------------------#
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