RedHat Replacment

[Zscoundrel]

That is an interesting business model.  I have been considering 
something like that for a while now. 

Count me in if you want to get something like that started!

Karl Schmidt wrote:

> I've been testing out Distros to replace RedHat - There are three 
> goals in this for me.
>
> One -- Stable server software to replace a redhat 7.3/9 software.
> Two -- Linux desktops for my kids (They are my test environments for 
> the long term plan of total migration to Linux)
> Three -- a Distro that is not going to do what Redhat has in the last 
> year.
>
> I think that rules out Suse/Novel, IBM, SUN and leaves me with 
> Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo.
>
> My take is that Debian has the best community spirit of support. In 
> the end supporting Debian is good for all Linux distros. They are a 
> bit behind in their release right now - does anyone know when the next 
> release is likely? And will the next release have a text installer?
>
> My target date to move to a new distro is first quarter of '04.
>
>
> Has anyone transitioned from Redhat to Debian? If so how painful/ any 
> pitfalls?
>
> Off topic - about Linux Business models: I think that a 900 number 
> based support center could rock - and could support more than one 
> distro. One could sell a 900 support package to computer builders 
> where the end user would get a pre installed system and if he had 
> trouble you would have him (assuming he had internet connectivity up 
> and going) execute a ssh port forwarding script so the support center 
> could log on etc (I do this for my 80 year-old Linux using father). 
> This is a business that could be started small with just 5 guys or so 
> and then scaled up and could be quite profitable.
>
> There is no reason that 900 phone calls can't be routed real time to 
> who ever is free that day (thanks to R&D of the phone sex 
> industry<g>). A shared call history DB and web site would be all that 
> it would take to get this off the ground.
>
> My experience with the support business is that if you just care a 
> little and are willing to listen to things that sound stupid without 
> laughing, people are quite willing to send you piles of money to 
> answer questions. People are so used to getting blown off and put down 
> that if you just have a phone number that gets answered politely they 
> are thrilled. If you go one step past what they expect you get nothing 
> but free press.
>
>

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