Fedora Desktop future- RedHat moves

[max]

Da Rock wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 11:39 -0600, Robin Laing wrote:
>> Alastair Neil wrote:
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 10:23 PM, Ric Moore <wayward4now at gmail.com 
>>> <mailto:wayward4now at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 13:05 -0700, Francis Earl wrote:
>>>      > That article ENTIRELY got it wrong. All RedHat said was they won't be
>>>      > pushing Linux on the consumer desktop for some time. They make their
>>>      > money from servers, and they are a company, so it's not in their best
>>>      > interest to have a product they aren't profiting from.
>>>
>>>     OTOH, as I've said for years, desktops beget servers. Who in their right
>>>     mind would have ever thought that Windows would become a choice as a
>>>     server platform?? The Windows3.1 users got used to the desktop and it
>>>     rolled from there. Disregard the desktops of college entry level users,
>>>     and they'll migrate with their favorite platform and comfort level to
>>>     using it to admin their future server needs. What's not to understand in
>>>     this? RedHat could very well be blowing their lead and not seeing it
>>>     until too late in the game to recover.
>>>
>>>     We (RH) used to have college programs all over the place ...usually
>>>     promoted as install fests at Universities. I haven't heard of one in the
>>>     press for years now. Servers are where the money is, no doubt. But, it
>>>     is better IMHO to have the future admins loyalty through the user
>>>     desktop by catering to them. I spent years in Marketing. I learned to
>>>     never EVER disregard the little guy. He might become the next purchasing
>>>     agent and/or decision maker. My two cents, Ric
>>>
>>>
>>> An where has it got Microsoft? 20 years and countless billions invested 
>>> in marketing and they still manage only 30% of the server market.
>>>
>>> True, Novel lost out to WinNT in part because users got used to the 
>>> Windows interface and wanted a similar experience for managing their 
>>> servers.  I refuse to believe that there is such a  gulf between Ubuntu 
>>> and RHEL in functionality that users would have the same visceral 
>>> reaction and defect in droves from RH to Ubuntu - because they love 
>>> brown backgrounds on their Gnome desktops.  Red Hat has focused its 
>>> desktop efforts on crafting a distribution that is best in class for 
>>> administering servers, just as SUSE is crafting a business productivity 
>>> centric desktop distribution with an emphasis on Windows 
>>> interoperability (thus Evolution, Mono/silverlight and "Don't Sue us 
>>> please Bill!" agreements).  These distros have carved their own niches, 
>>> I don't as yet know what Ubuntu's niche is - windows malcontents? home 
>>> tinkerers/hobyists?  Small Home Office?  You could argue that this is 
>>> exactly the way linux started and who knows in 10 or 20 years maybe they 
>>> will have a significant enterprise share, however, I doubt it.  Being 
>>> able to play MP3's out of the box rarely makes it onto a enterprise 
>>> server deployment specification.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> This is an interesting comment.  Just a few days ago, I read an article 
>> about Microsoft pointing out companies that have moved from Linux 
>> servers due to the desktop support as well as gui management tools.  Of 
>> course I hear that they are now adding more command line tools for 
>> administration due to demand.
>>
>> I see two aspects to this part of the debate.
>>
>> If people use Linux at work, they will be more likely to use it at home. 
>>   They will use what they are familiar with.  Most computer users are 
>> not that intelligent to using their computers.  Some cannot even figure 
>> out how to update their computers.
>>
>> As for MS not getting a larger server share, this is a strange aspect. 
>> Part of the issue in the past has been many admins that new Unix found 
>> it easier to move to Linux from Solaris or other versions.  The share of 
>> Windows servers from what I am reading is increasing.  I see this as a 
>> result of the new point and click mentality.  If you cannot click it, 
>> then you cannot manage it.  Damn kids today.  :)
>>
> 
> I know thats the mentality, but my god thats bullshit! I'll use cli
> anyday for major tasks- try migrating stats support on a IIS server with
> 400+ sites then you'll know!
> 
>> FWIW, this thread has brought out many of the comments that have been 
>> stated in this article.
>>
>> Did Canonical Just Get Punked by Red Hat and Novell?
>> http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2008/04/did-canonical-j.html
>>
>> Basically, the announcements are to support the server sales.
>>
>> I did like this comment though.
>>
>> "Curiously, very little attention was paid to Ron Hovespian's comments 
>> on Novell's similar plans, made before Red Hat's. If I were Novell, I 
>> would take this as a bad sign. Not only did the mainstream media not 
>> pick up on Novell's news, but even most of the hard-line Linux 
>> blogosphere wrote them off with nary so much as a "meh" And if you can't 
>> get those folks mad, you must be doing something wrong! :)"
>>
>>  From the people that I know, the reason to move from Fedora is the 
>> upgrade path being easier.  Longer support is appreciated.  Some of 
>> these people are also old time Solaris users as well.
>>
>> I will stick with Fedora as long as I can get third party application 
>> that me and my family use.  If they are only available on Ubuntu, then I 
>> will have to move.
> 
> I think it comes down to ease of support as well. If support doesn't
> keep up then the software is rendered useless. Ie MPlayer and codecs...
> 
Obviously Fedora is not for the faint of heart.

Max