On Thu, 1 Jan 2004, Jonathan Hutchins wrote:

> RedHat has become the Microsoft of the Linux world, with greed-based licensing 
> plans and a "we know what's good for you" atitude.

I wouldn't summarize redhat in that regard. I have used redhat since 4.1.  
Back then, they were the distribution to recommend.  They were #1.  Not
too many people could argue that Why?  Because it had everything set up to
go from the first reboot.  All the services, bells, and whistles one could
want.  You had X, netscape, email, windows connectivity, and the latest
window managers.  It was bleeding edge for a distribution, far above the
rest.  You could give a redhat disk to someone and they could use the 
internet with it.

> I don't hear nearly enough FUD about SCO in here - how their code is
> bad, their support sucks, theyhave lousy taste in clothes.  How come
> we're all targeting RedHat instead?

I sill see some SCO boxes being used, especially in critical places.  Its
fascinating to see them work, much like the nostalgia of vacuum tube
machine controls.  Unfortunately, it seems their licensing and vacuum of
current mindshare are killing their remaining systems.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt?  Redhat scares me.  Sure, the source code is in
SRPMS, not already in the directory structure waiting to be grep'ed.  It
follows a friendly sysv init and directory structure, that is nice.  But
their package management and desktop software always leaves me playing
games.  People who can maintain redhat and windows boxes impress me.

> RHL9 has been acclaimed by the relatively clueless press as one of the most 
> public-friendly releases of Linux every.  I'm sure Microsoft loves, 
> treasures, and archives every single RedHat-bashing email on the net, because 
> it weakens their biggest potential threat.  They can point to "linux experts" 
> who say that "the most user frieldly linux sucks" any time some suit is 
> considering a new server farm.

So hate me for dare critisizing redhat.  I've seen others whine about it
too.  And that I am thankful for, because then I knew I wasn't alone with
my pain.  That's how I learned how to forget my pride and dare try
something else.  I believe sharing experiences of fustration is a way to
learn weaknesses and identify problems. If microsoft enjoys criticism
between linux distributions, good for them.  Software gets better when we
identify weaknesses and compete among solutions.  I don't think we have to
worry about about microsoft, unless we just absolutely *hate* them.  Sure
I think windows sucks, but I don't use it.  So, it doesn't bother me.

So we will always have a peanut gallery, but every year that passes, our
computer hardware and software gets better.  For technology, every year is
better than the previous.

Even redhat's kudzu gets better, but I still think it sucks.  And RPM
blows.