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Red Hat Linux Support To End
Orbital Sander writes "Received a missive this morning from the Red Hat Network, stating that they will discontinue maintenance on Red Hat Linux 7.x and 8.0 by the end of 2003, and on Red Hat 9.0 by the end of April, 2004. And, more ominously: 'Red Hat does not plan to release another product in the Red Hat Linux line.' [The full text of the email is on Newsforge.] Kind of the end of an era, and the new king has already been appointed: Red Hat Linux is dead! Long live Red Hat Enterprise Linux! Looks like they realized that only their support contract-based version of the product was making them any money." Readers also note that Red Hat is pointing users to the free Fedora Project.
I'm using Mandrake ;)
You couldn't have looked that hard...this was the *first* link I found from Google.
Dipwad, I', not a dipwad. I just have fat fingers.
Commercial companies like Red Hat have to make commercial decisions. They have to go where the $$'s are. They made the right business decision for Red Hat. Slackware makes the right decisions for users becuase that is who "owns" the distribution.
Slackware has been around for 10 years and will likely be around for another 10 years. It has an automatic update tool (swaret), an active project to have GNOME and its components running and auto-installed, all the packages you want, a site to track the latest packages (www.linuxpackages.net), etc. You'll even find a tool to convert most Red Hat rpm's to be installed on Slackware.
You probably have to use a kterm, set your LANG to "ja_JP.eucjp" and run kinput2 or some variant that works with FreeWnn or Canna. Actually, you might also have to ctrl-right-click on the kterm window and select the input method. To make the input method default for kterm's, you need to edit the /etc/X11/app-defaults/KTerm (or some similar file).
Anyway, it's a pain in the ass.
My other first post is car post.
new versions will be the preferred path, rather than backporting security fixes
/. would be a stock rant site... *sigh*
This really is a shame, as it appears Redhat has confessed that it simply does not understand its market.
I'm a smaller shareholder of Redhat stock - owning enough stock that the losses I took (from a purchase at $22/share) could have paid for a lifetime of Redhat commercial licenses (and yes, I've even suggested this - even a free lifetime maintenance subscription as an apology for the loss - not even an email reply from a marketing weasel). Naturally, I'd welcome any move by Redhat to recover their stock value. This move, unfortunately, encourages me to dump and finally take my losses, as I've definitely lost hope in Redhat management.
An earlier poster pointed out that he'll simply stop running Redhat at home, load up Debian or some other distribution, and when the boss asks him to buy an enterprise license for a work project, he'll naturally go with what he is familiar with. Any halfway competent marketer understands this strategy - it's the "sneak past the decision maker by getting to his recommender geek" play. If you're not IBM/Microsoft/etc., and especially if you're the underdog, this is your game. (Redhat, are you listening?)
Microsoft occasionally admits (though it is increasingly rare) that it too has benefitted from the pirated use of its software by home users. How many SQL admins cut their teeth on bootleg versions (I can name a few in my circles), and have since even converted new employers to SQL from older non-Microsoft dbms's? I can name a large satellite distribution company that did just this, and much credit goes to the db admins for advocating MSSQL from their bootleg experience. A better example is Microsoft's educational discounted software and packages nearly given out at classes and shows.
Then there's the Netscape vs. IE illustration; Netscape got a real attitude when its stock soared into the stratosphere and immediately forgot about all of us ISPs out there who evangelized their product. They started demanding license fees for copies of Navigator included with our installation kits. Along came IEAK...
Granted, Navigator vs. IE is an application battle, not an operating system, but I don't believe Redhat is ready to play as a stand-alone OS (and not as a support model). Those that pay for support will and do. Those that won't will just move to another distribution; e.g. Redhat's move gains no new customers and loses many others.
And come on, expecting users to settle for crippleware when alternatives exist is a waste of time. I'll say it first... Fedora is DOA. Redhat, if you're going to abandon your userbase, don't bother wasting time with an unmaintained crippleware release.
So it doesn't look good for Redhat. If there isn't a change in direction, I guess it's probably just as good a time to dump my stock, cept I've told you all now too:-(
Never thought
*scoove*
TROLL
I checked it this time. I pretty sure its correct.