On Mon, 2005-05-16 at 11:03 -0700, Erik Bixby wrote:
I moved a top posted reply to the bottom for clarity of the discussion.
> On 5/13/05, Craig White <craigwhite@azapple.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, 2005-05-13 at 14:15 -0700, Erik Bixby wrote:
> > > To clarify, the reason I switched from Red Hat to SuSE:
> > > http://fedora.redhat.com/about/#support
> > > Fedora is not supported, SuSE is. For some organizations that's an
> > > issue. For organizations I figured I'd be working for, I figured that
> > > would be an issue. I like that with SuSE I can download the actual
> > > code that a potential client organization might well be running. With
> > > Fedora/RHEL this is not the case. Fedora is similar to RHEL, as is
> > > CentOS. But, they are not the compiled-by-Red-Hat-real-deal binaries.
> > > And, I just don't like how they built their business making the
> > > distro easily available to people, and then changed the rules in the
> > > middle of the game.
> > >
> > > At any rate, that is why I made my personal choice to switch from Red
> > > Hat 9 to SuSE. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who are
> > > very happy with Fedora and CentOS. :)
> > ----
> > I think that this represents a misunderstanding of what the various Red
> > Hat offerings represent.
> >
> > RHL - the basic Red Hat product prior to Fedora was somewhat of an all
> > things to all people and didn't have an identifiable purpose. Their RHEL
> > product is clearly the most commercially successful Linux distribution
> > at this point in time and was originally an off-shoot of the RHL
> > product. By selling both RHL and RHEL, the product offerings lacked
> > clarity of purpose.
> >
> > The shift to Fedora was far more than a name change - the purpose was to
> > have a frequently released, frequently 'unstable' package releases and
> > be the development and testing product for what might ultimately be
> > packaged as RHEL. Thus Fedora is indeed unsupported since it is often
> > using 'unstable' packages and is attempting to push the envelope in
> > releases and packaging. Obviously RHEL is supported.
> >
> > CentOS is but one of several RHEL clone products which are compiled from
> > the SRPM's of the RHEL product and whether the binaries are compiled by
> > Red Hat or by others has proven to be of little consequence and has been
> > rapidly fixed when a problem is identified. There are no issues that I
> > am aware of between using an RHEL clone or the official RHEL product and
> > I am maintaining several systems of both categories.
> >
> > As for the appropriateness of switching a business model (RHL -> Fedora)
> > - or changing the rules of the game as you see it...this is a
> > competitive market and if you don't adapt, you suffer the consequences.
> > This business model switch offers all of the best of Linux...
> >
> > Freely distributed, widely enhanced, pretty much bleeding edge Fedora
> > which seems to offer a Linux state of the art desktop platform.
> >
> > Restricted distribution, completely supported by Red Hat, ISV's,
> > Software Packagers, etc. RHEL.
> >
> > Freely distributed, somewhat enhanced RHEL re-spin.
> >
> > Thus it is no problem running the same software at home as you have at
> > work. In fact, using RHEL at the office and an RHEL clone is virtually
> > identical. Considering the continuity of the 3 above listed offerings,
> > there is incredible leverage between the 3 and it's not a problem to
> > move confidently among them.
> >
> > Now I am not gonna disparage SuSE or any other distribution as it is
> > clear that they all have their relative strengths and weaknesses but if
> > history is any indication, Novell completely ran Word Perfect into the
> > ground as well as their Netware product line and totally lost their
> > Groupwise market share to Exchange Server so when I consider the impact
> > of their purchases of Ximian and SuSE, I can only hope that they not
> > suffer from similar fate. Judging by their efforts thus far with
> > Evolution and the breadth of their Linux based offerings, it seems that
> > they are hopelessly entrenched in forever trying to be all things to all
> > people.
> >
> > Craig
---
> You're arguing with my stated opinion.
---
I am not arguing anything - I only clarified the factual issues.
---
> I am well aware of the Fedora
> project's purpose. Which is why I don't think it's a valid choice in
> a production environment.
---
agreed - it is not
---
> I also didn't think that the
> RHEL-compiled-from-source distros would be a good choice, in the
> environment I saw myself working in. What happens, if you call Red
> Hat wanting support on your CentOS install?
---
CentOS offers paid support but of course, Red Hat isn't going to support
it. If you anticipate SLA needs, RHEL is of course the only distribution
variety from the Red Hat tree worth considering. Of course SuSE, is
another valid choice offering SLA's.
---
> And, as far as your harsh
> review of Novell's business practices is concerned, I am of the
> opinion that when Microsoft comes after you, with their $50+ billion
> in the bank along with their defacto monopoly on the desktop, your
> proprietary software business is sunk no matter how well or poorly you
> may be managed. I can't think of a single piece of proprietary
> software that has gone toe to toe with Microsoft, and lasted.
> Certainly, not before Microsoft was convicted.
---
harsh review of Novell's practices? I merely recounted their recent
business history. The causes are whatever they are. So they took the
cash they received in their Dr. DOS settlement with Microsoft and
purchased some open source companies - great - at least with open source
stuff, someone can pick up the pieces if they should too suffer the same
fate.
---
>
> At any rate, these are my opinions. Argue with them as you see fit.
---
None of this was meant to be personal nor argumentative with your 'opinions' and I'm glad you are happy with SuSE.
I merely meant to point out that from where I sit, the Fedora, RHEL and RHEL clones represent 3 different methods of obtaining software from the same tree at various levels of support and versioning.
Craig
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