RH recommends using Windows?

[Paul W. Frields]

On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 11:28, Eric Wood wrote:
> http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39117575,00.htm
> 
> Man, has RH really lost that much confidence in Fedora?

On the contrary. If you read the article, they are boasting about the
corporate desktop space being ripe for Linux. Red Hat has never really
boosted the idea of Linux on every home user's desktop. It makes
absolutely no sense for them to do so, and none of their strategic moves
have taken them in that direction.

I built my mother a computer just a couple of months ago, and I happily
put Microsoft Windows XP on it, not because I like or dislike it, but
because it was easiest for her to use. Go back and read Szulik's
comments and you won't find one point in there worth disagreeing with,
especially considering he was talking about "home users." He was
speaking with honesty and forthrightness about the state of affairs
*today*... wow, what a novel concept!

I love my mom, but frankly I have a full-time job as well as a family of
my own, and don't have time to troubleshoot her problems daily because
she can't figure out how to use an ssh tunnel, or how to get Blue's
Clues to work on Linux so her grandchildren can play with it. This is
regardless of the fact that I could do it; it's just not my cup of tea
to play support guru when I'm not at work. Non-techie home users have a
much more solid, established support structure with Microsoft Windows,
especially since just about everything they want to use is made for it.
And they have better things to do with their lives than make their
computers work. 

Corporate users, on the other hand, have existing, well-defined IT
support structures in place. They are expected only to complete real
work on their company computers and not spend their time playing
Shockwave games, making their own greeting cards or installing new
cursors. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and, frankly, Fedora Core if you have
a decently trained IT staff) is going to be ideal for deployment to
these folks.

But over the next five years, who knows what wonders may be revealed?
Compare today's Fedora Core desktop system to Red Hat Linux 5.2, five
years ago, and look at the difference. Astonishing! Just having built
six new, decked-out KT600-based Athlon XP 2800+ workstations for
coworkers a few weeks ago, Fedora Core test3 runs perfectly on all of
them.

Linux gains ground every day, and a good part of why is the work Red Hat
has put in over the last ten years, and the strategic vision that has
kept them from throwing in with zealotry or easy money. Instead, they've
been slowly and steadily gaining ground not through disparaging or
FUD-ing the competition, but by producing a great product.

All right, so that sounds like a lot of cheerleading, but hey, Red Hat
changed my life and I believe in what they do. And you don't have to
read between any of those lines to see that their CEO is not giving up
or losing any confidence in what they're involved with. He's stating the
facts as they exist today, without prejudice toward tomorrow or the day
after that, or next month or next year. What Mr. Szulik is saying is
about customers and what they want, and the fact that he speaks with
such a disarming lack of artifice is a real testament to the kind of
business Red Hat practices, open and ethical. 

We are living in amazing times! Cheers!
-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE