Red Hat and product lifespan

[Jonathan Hutchins]

On Thursday 20 November 2003 10:51 pm, Dre G. wrote:

> Do we need to innovate at this point or get everyone developing on the
> same longer more stable cycle?

I think there's a problem with "feature creep" that's starting to affect Linux 
in general.

When I built the RedHat 7.3 server I maintain, Linux and RedHat 7.3 were 
perfectly adequate to the task of running a text-based webserver with PHP and 
MySQL support.  They still are.  

The main "features" I'm aware of in RedHat 9 are a "better" installation 
script and better GUI applications.  Guess what? Neither are of any interest 
to me in supporting this server.

What I need is ongoing support for the existing functions and features of this 
server.  I don't need support for Apache 2, I don't need PHP 5.

So why do I need to "upgrade" to a new version of RedHat?  The only answer is 
simply to support RedHat's bottom line - at the expens of my own.

Microsoft is constantly seeking ways to drive the demand for new operating 
systems - games that require better video, spreadsheets that need more data 
bandwidth, databases that need innovative indexing solutions, and the dreaded 
self-serving growth of Live Video PowerPoint Presentations.  Dancing spam on 
the web, and live streaming feeds of Brittany Spears.

While I'm glad to see Linux moving ahead and bringing out drivers to support 
current hardware, I don't see a need for a decent Linux package to become 
WindowsMEXPOffice2005 with all the trimmings.  Let's keep a solid, stable 
core with a broad span of hardware support, and add all the extras on 
separately.