APT, Yum and Red Carpet

Jef Spaleta jspaleta at princeton.edu
Thu Aug 14 00:21:39 UTC 2003


>The difference is the RHLP is a distro and not a product in the normal
>software sense. I think it is the aim to spin off some other project
>over which Redhat has no control. The community is there to help guide
>Redhat as to their wishes, (i.e. the community's wishes) but Redhat is
>there to make the decision on the distro composition in the end. You can
>get many community brands around Redhat. They could do what you want,
>but I do not think they want that. It almost entails losing control of
>the project.

Hey I'm just using the already provided example of OpenOffice.org as a
"semi-external" project. How successful as a community project would
mozilla have been if it were under netscape branding? How successful of
a community project would OpenOffice.org have been if it were under Sun
trademark branding constraints. If RHLp is that different of a beastie
because its a "distro" and not an "application"..then maybe the
community project idea as a development model isn't a good fit either.
My pet hypothesis is that a separate brand is muy importante in building
up a community developer base. Taxation without representation and all
that jazz. But thats not the argument I'm making here. Red Hat can keep
their branding in rhlp for all i care as a consumer...just make it easy
for OEM's to build desktop and workstation systems that I can buy with
rhl pre-installed. 

If OEM's can't market the fact that they pre-install RHL and call it
RHL..whats the point..for me as an end-user. I'm going to have to buy a
bare-bones box and make sure the components work together when i install
rhlp myself....no thanks. I WANT to pay for an OEM i trust to give me
hardware they are reasonable sure works(with some hardware support
garuntee) for my home desktop that runs RHL...not pink tie linux...not
green shoe linux...not monkey chunks linux...I want to KNOW its its
rhl...and I want that OEM to be able to tell me without hassle that what
they have pre-installed as the operating system is RHLP. I'd be even
happier if I had a good way to tell if the OEM was a member of the RHLP
community in good standing, and not just a leech.

Right now if you read the trademark guidelines for redhat products...a
box set "resell" is intimately involved with how oem's, without special
arrangement, can pre-install rhl and be able to market the system comes
with rhl. I'd hate to be forced to buy a pre-installed lindows box to
get a pre-installed linux with hardware i was only reasonable sure that
rhl worked with.  Without further boxsets for oem's to "resell",
something with regard to how the oems I buy pre-installed home desktop
linux systems from has to change. If my oem is forced to start using
lindows pre-installed...then I'm going to follow the oem's lead, trust
them and continue to buy from them...and I'll hate myself for it. Why do
we need to make it difficult for system integrators to use the community
based rhl distro.  There needs to be a clear way for oems to be able to
market that they sell pre-installed rhl boxen. But this is turning into
more of a rant...from what I can tell...this issue is on the radar
screen I think with "the man"...and I'm a peripheral observer, as a
pre-installed home desktop system buyer. But If i may flex my miniscule
marketing power a little for show, I'll say...there is no way i'm going
to consistently spend the effort to build my own home desktop linux
systems from components...hardware compatibility and reliability can
still be a minefield. I want oem's to be able to sell me hardware they
stand behind...and they need to be able to market that they've
pre-installed rhl. Hell i wouldn't even mind if the sell of a
subscription to rhn was a condition that oem's must meet in place of the
boxset resell, which can no longer be satisified. If I'm buying from an
OEM to get hardware assurance...i'm more than happy to have a "software
assurance" subscription as part of that charge. Oh crap did i say
"software assurance" thats a MS trademark now isnt it...i'm going to
have to get a bigger stick to fight of those lawyers too.

-jef"snapple fun fact: 131
         penguins have an organ above their eyes that converts sea water
         to fresh water"spaleta


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