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Paid Support Not Critical For Linux Adoption

Posted by Soulskill on from the why-buy-the-milk-when-you-can-get-the-cow-for-free dept.

ruphus13 writes "At the LinuxWorld expo, an analyst for the 451 Group pointed to a growing trend in enterprise — the increase in adoption of community-supported Linux distros. From the article, 'Companies are increasingly choosing free community-driven Linux distributions instead of commercial offerings with conventional support options. Several factors are driving this trend, particularly dissatisfaction with the cost of support services from the major distributors. Companies that use and deploy Linux internally increasingly have enough in-house expertise to handle all of their technical needs and no longer have to rely on Red Hat or Novell.'"

2 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. People supporting Redhat supports community distro by xdancergirlx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't forget though that the ability of bigger enterprise-driven companies like Redhat and Novell to pay full-time linux programmers has had a tremendously postive effect on community distros.

    It is hard to imagine what the linux desktop would look like today without the contribution of Redhat and Novell programmers during the last 5 years.

  2. Re:People supporting Redhat supports community dis by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So how do Red Hat and Novell pay full-time Linux programmers in the future when no one needs paid support any more because community support is better going forward?