Which distro for the enterprise now?

Thomas Cameron said:
>
>> I can buy that to a degree. However, I would have a real problem if I
>> went to go buy that 350Z I want from my local Nissan dealer. Then
>> find out they tacked on $2800 for "service".
>
> Not at all what RH is doing. You want a free distro built by Red Hat
> (even supported through Bugzilla, but not with any SLAs), go with
> Fedora.

Then I am missing features. So, if I wanted that 350Z as a convertible.
What you are saying is that I can get the convertible if I will pay the
$2800 in lockin "service" or I can get the base model and then pay someone
to turn it into a convertible for me. At which point I say it's not worth
the effort to get my choice in service. :)

> Because they are selling service. No one seems to get this - the
> software is mostly free. They are selling service. You are basically
> asking "What are they afraid of? Why are they attaching service to this
> service contract they are selling?"

So I can buy the software without the service and the service without the
software? My understanding was that I paid one price and it go me both.
That I could not get the software without the service.

> Let me say this again: RH is doing exactly what has been recommended to
> and by F/OSS support folks for years. They are selling support
> services. Why is that so bad?

I'm sorry but most Free Software Folks make for crappy economists. While
they are selling services, they are tying them directly to software
licenses, which impedes freedom of choice on who your support vendor is
(imho). Is it evil and wrong and destroying society? No. However, there
are other distributions that don't do this and so it makes more sense to
pick those. Fedora included. :)

> If you don't want the support from RH but want the next version of Red
> Hat Linux, get Fedora. If you want support, get RHEL.

This is an okay compromise, but I understand Red Hat is not giving
everything back to Fedora that they put in RHEL.

-Derek