Which distro for the enterprise now?

der.hans said:
> What's to prevent me from buying RHEL, removing references to RH and RH
> logos, then selling it as FEL ( fred's Enterprise Linux )?

I am not sure if there is anything preventing you from doing that.
However, I see two issues.

1. No one is really doing it well at this point. So Red Hat and their
"license + support" is the only current option.

2. Unlike Debian this creates a very fractured environment. As now if you
have 3 companies doing this you have a jumbled mess. That is a fractured
community.

To be clear I am not saying the RHEL product is bad. Therefore, I don't
see the need for someone else to repackage it. I think the binding of
support to the license is less than desirable.

For example this is why UserLinux is starting. They basically want to
have a more updated version of Debian (but will put all their stuff back
into Debian) and not have licensing issue.

I think they are addressing issue 1, because instead of "forking" and
starting a new project, they are attempted to just "merge" the 3 versions
of Debian into something palatable to the market they are targetting.
They are addressing issue #2 by attempting to NOT offer the support
themselves but rather build a network of ISVs to provide choice to the
users for support.

I hope that makes sense.

>> I guess for me, why be the RIAA. Why treat your customers like
>> thieves by default? If I buy support for 10 machines. I run 10
>> machines. Why go through licensing mechanisms to force me to prove
>> it?

> Because people/companies will buy support for one machine, then try to
> pretend that all the machines they have are that one machine.
> I agree it's not a great, but I don't have a better suggestion right
> now.

Well, then they don't make very good customers. You should probably not
do business with them. Why however assume that all people/companies are
criminal by default?

-Derek