[lug] Fedora *MEETS* KRUD comments wanted

[Michael J. Hammel]

On Fri, 2003-09-26 at 14:25, Nate Duehr wrote:
>  From your signature line on your message Michael:
> 
> Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
>    --  Credited to the Dalai Lama.
> 
> RedHat achieved Linux-"immortality" by sharing.  They're not as willing 
> to share anymore.  :-)

Lots of comments, but I'm afraid I agreed with almost none of them. 
Since this is mostly a topic based on opinion I'll let it go - except
for one more thing:

Red Hat is still sharing.  They help sponsor the Fedora project and base
their products on what is in Fedora (so you have some sense of what
you're getting if you keep track of that project).  What they aren't
doing (I think - I'm not even completely sure of this point) is giving
away ISO's of their products anymore.  Red Hat has always done far more
than the GPL has required and to complain that changing those practices
to something that is *still* more than the GPL requires is just mind
boggling to me.

Fortunately, in the open source world you have alternatives.  Debian and
SuSE may provide fine options for those so inclined.  Mandrake may be as
well though its hard to tell where their future lies.  The point is
you're left the option of being able to choose the computing path that
best suites your needs.  This is something new in computing.  Red Hat is
a shining example of how business should play in this new world.

For my part, I still like what Red Hat has done.  More importantly, I
approve of the way they have done it.  Their business practices are a
model for how software should have been sold since day one.  The playing
field is level with Linux and Red Hat is showing it can compete in such
a market.  Kudos to them. 
-- 
Michael J. Hammel                               The Graphics Muse 
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org                      http://www.graphics-muse.com
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Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
  --  Credited to the Dalai Lama.