Lurker Suggestion: Retro-name RHL to Fedora Core 0.x

[Bryan J. Smith]

Lurker here.  Feel free to smack me for suggesting this.

I've run into continuous confusion with clients and enthusiasts alike on
the naming change.  Whether it is a demonization by anti-Red Hat
enthusiasts, people who claim Red Hat doesn't do anything but RPM (sigh,
they can't seem to separate APT from Debian) or when I've switched
clients from upgade from Red Hat Network (RHN) to Fedora Legacy (FL) for
Red Hat Linux (RHL) updates, they act like it's a whole new product.

I've had the best success in just flat out stating that Red Hat Linux is
now Fedora Core (FC), and Fedora Legacy (FL) is the mechanism by which
end-of-life RHL/FC releases, period.  This includes no longer referring
to Red Hat Linux but calling it Fedora Core.  Additionally, I call
"Fedora" the "community distribution" of Red Hat, which helps further
calm fears -- especially when I go into the trademark issues, which
client seem to understand better than the enthusiasts.

As such, I would suggest we adopt a nomenclature to retro-name RHL to FC
0.x.  This would both solve some confusion _and_ the trademark
concerns.  In fact, it would also solve the trademark issue for "black
box" vendors still shipping products based on Red Hat Linux 7.3 or 9 to
call and update it under a different name.

Specifically:  
  Red Hat Linux 7.3 is now Fedora Core L7[.3]
  Red Hat Linux 9 is now Fedora Core L9

Where a traditional "number" is necessary, the "L" can be interpreted as
"0." -- so RHL 9 -> FC L9 or FC 0.9.  We can do this with other Red Hat
Linux releases -- and maybe even have a "history page/mapping" on the
Fedora Legacy site.

This would also include putting a couple of new files in the
"redhat-release/ fedora-release" packages, such as:  

  /etc/fedora-release

With the reference to the new nomenclature.  This might solve future
packages that look for /etc/fedora-release instead of
/etc/redhat-release (who knows?).

Plus there should be a symlink in /usr/share/doc:  
  fedora-release-Lx -> redhat-release-x

If anyone is up for it (I am, sans I only speak English ;-), it probably
wouldn't hurt to edit the contents of the directory to both reflect the
nomenclature change as well as change the trademarks.

Again, just a suggestion.  The Fedora changeover has been so confusing,
and I tire of dealing with people in the "assumptions."  Now that "Red
Hat Linux" is officially end-of-life, I feel we should just "simplify"
the whole mess and call everything "Fedora" retro-actively.

-- Bryan

P.S.  This isn't some anti-Red Hat post -- quite the opposite if you
read the details.  I'm very pro-Red Hat, pro-Fedora and I think Fedora
is the best thing Red Hat has done yet!  Unfortunately, most people are
making assumptions out there.  This is the best suggestion I could think
of, and works for me with people.


-- 
Engineers scoff at me because I have IT certifications
 IT Pros scoff at me because I am a degreed engineer
    I see and understand both of their viewpoints
  Unfortunately Engineers and IT Pros only see in me
       what they dislike about the other trade
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Bryan J. Smith                      b.j.smith at ieee.org