[SC.LUG] So, are RedHat ditching the home user market?

[aroffe at its-linux.co.uk]

Hi all,

Flame war. goody gumdrops. 

Isn't this about choice? Commercial businesses that need to make profits 
and satisfy
shareholders have to sell products. At some stage they will have to make a 
decision 
about operating projects such as free (as in beer) distro's. 

RedHat's move was inevitable thanks to the factors that are making 
commercial use 
of linux a success. I expect to see it from other big names too. But.... 
there are loads of
distro's out there and that is what I am happy about. What is truly vital 
here is that those
choices are never removed and competition remains in the market. I am very 
aware
of the costs involved in running a business, I'm equally aware that 
without the efforts of
many contributors - there would be no linux, bsd, Altheos or whatever... 
If RedHat, SuSE,
IBM et al had not contributed to the big picture none of this would have 
happened. 

The beast is of our own making and it's hungry now and wants feeding. I 
can't speak
for the rest of the list but I got into this because I wanted choice. I 
was fed up with second rate
software, restrictive licensing and bad service. I now choose what I use, 
how I pay for it and
what level of support I can expect. It was always going to happen. 
Actually, it's is becoming
easier than ever to talk to business about linux and TV ads aren't free.

I'm going to miss the old days too - but we're almost there ... M$ isn't 
the only choice anymore.

I also used to give the big names a break, I expected niggles in free 
software. Thats changed
too.  I now have the opportunity to tell RedHat  that their product 
dosen't represent value ( not that I want to)
and buy or download something else. I think that's what we all wanted, 
wasn't it?

Business, though, needs to support the open-source community.  If not 
we'll be back to the drawing board.

phew.. come and get me :)

best
Andy