Re: Fedora Core == Linux?

[Gary <gary-list-luci@mygirlfriday.info>]

Hi Bryan,

--On Saturday, December 20, 2003 04:13:45 PM -0600 "Bryan J. Smith"
<b.j.smith@ieee.org> wrote:

> Okay, let's step back (note the "anal" tags ;-).

right, sorry for the delay. Wife and I skipped out to see "Master and
Commander" good flick. I saw the tags... perhaps I should have put a
smiley face on my previous post. <g>

>  Progeny is only > redistributing Red Hat's packages right now.
>  They are not offering > their own, rolled packages as of yet.

Agreed.

> But back to the original point, we're at least 6 months away from Fedora
> dropping support for FC 1, so speculation is all we have.  As soon as
> Progeny sees a "threshold crossed" in Fedora adoption by businesses that
> Progeny deals with, then you'll see an announcement.

Exactly, speculation.

> At this time, I doubt they know either way.

totally agree.

>> Are you going to bet your business on it?
>
> My point exactly.  How long will Progeny provide services?

This is why I initially brought all this up... <g>

>> Not for me personally, I would never pay that for a Linux OS. Not when
>> there is SUSE or Libranet around. SUSE offers everything for about $79
>> and  2 full years of support.  If a client pays for it, fine, no problem.

> If 2 years is what you want, then SuSE sounds like a good OS for the
> price.  If you need more than 2 years, especially if you need 5+, then I
> think RHEL has a fair price for that kinds of support.

Agreed, I have no problem with any distro trying to make money.. I
have supported them, and paid for them over the years..My remark above
should have been stated as "I never would pay that much for a distro."
SUSE does have some quirks that bug me. Hence the searching on my
part. I currently have some servers up using FreeBSD, and am totally
happy with that.

> Understand your point that you "would never pay that for a Linux OS,"
> and I assume that's because you don't need 5 years support.  Apparently
> Red Hat feels it has customers that do.

yes, as a company, they have positioned themselves to this. I cannot
fault them for it. As mentioned, I would not pay that much for
it. Client wants to, great, no problem here.

> If it was only 12-18 months max, then there's probably enough interest
> by commercial entities to make "Fedora Legacy" viable, beyond the 6-9
> (or even 12) months Red Hat will throw people at it.  If this is the
> case, then it would not be profitable for Progeny to support it.  If
> not, then you might see Progeny offer it for a year after FC
> end-of-lifing.

could very well be.

> In any case community or commercial, and this is admittedly 100%
> speculation, I see Fedora Core being supported for 18 months.  But that
> is just my speculation.

a roll of the dice. However, this is why I personally am not going the
RC route. Others may think differently, I am sure. <g>

> Me?  I'm shouving out $179 for a 2 year subscription to RHEL WS in
> February when I upgrade to dual-Opteron.

This might be a way to go also. It is not a bad option.

> Even SuSE Linux Professional is $129 for the x86-64 version and, as
> you said, only supported 2 years.  I'm planning to run FC under UML
> (and have repeatedly suggested to Red Hat that it is in their best
> interest for RHEL sales to make sure it comes with a UML package,
> and release FC in a UML bundle).

For me, instead of UML FC, I will probably move over to Debian, either
directly or Libranet.

> My home habits typically drive my consulting recommendations as
> well, the Linux systems I support run 3+ years.  Add in the question
> of SuSE's continued "split product lines" and IHV/ISV certification
> across both, and I like the single RHEL approach.

There is also the factor now with SUSE, given that they have been
purchased by Novell.. What will happen to the pro line, etc... too
early to tell. Three years is a good number. Typically, I have been
using two.

-- 
Gary

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