FC2 doubtful quality?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Andy Green wrote:

> ... Only RH folks can do this because of the project structure.  Some 
> people who do great work helping on the ml are threfore finding 
> themselves becoming slightly shrill and embattled fanboys, equating 
> acknowledging the problem they cannot do anything about with heresy 
> against the project and the great RH people who lead it.

there was one other point that i thought was worth making -- it didn't 
really fit in the original post, but it's appropriate here, i think.

there's a constant emphasis that fedora core is *not* red hat -- that FC 
is a state-of-the-art, leading edge, way out there, community-based, use 
at your own risk distro meant partially as a proving ground for new 
technologies that will, someday, find their way into red hat's stable, 
enterprise-level offerings.

uh, yeah.  and the last time i looked, 69% of americans still thought 
saddam hussein had something to do with 9/11.

the point being that, regardless of what you tell people and regardless of 
the reality, a lot of folks are going to associate fedora core with red 
hat, and their experiences with FC are undoubtedly going to color their 
perception of red hat.  it may not be fair, but it's going to happen.

so the constant refrain of "if you don't like it, don't use it." is going 
to be interpreted by some as a sign that *red hat* is not really 
interested in their business or their satisfaction.  and this is something 
that red hat might want to be just a wee bit concerned about.  in this 
case, image really might be everything.

rday