Which distro for the enterprise now?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Derek Neighbors" <derek@gnue.org>
To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Cc: <thomas.cameron@camerontech.com>
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2004 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: 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. :)

Not really. It's more like you can go to the dealership and they tell you
you can have exactly the car you want - the 350Z convertible - for X dollars
(haven't priced one). Or, you can get have the version they are preparing
for next year for free. It may not have everything the one you buy has
(maybe not seat warmers or a built in garage door opener), but it's got all
of the major features and you don't have to pay for it. You are also free
to do anything (or have anything done) to it you like. I personally would
jump on the early version of next year's model.

> > 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.

No, you buy it as a package. If I understand correctly, you CAN buy RHEL
through a third party like IBM, HP, Dell, etc. and they will provide the
support.

> > 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.

Absolutely no argument there.

> 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. :)

Again, it's a matter of what your needs are. I use Fedora for my home
stuff. I use RHEL in the Enterprise. It's cheap, it Just Works(tm) 99% of
the time and I can get great suppor the other 1%, so it makes sense to me.

> > 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.

There are a *very* limited number of tools (I can only think of the
clustering stuff right off the top of my head) that they don't include in
Fedora. Per my conversation with a RH account manager and internal
developer, most of the internal development is done on Fedora, then code
frozen for inclusion in RHEL. The percentage of what RH does not GPL is
very, very small.

Thomas