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Red Hat Europe
Chuck Milam writes "Red Hat has announced Red Hat Europe. Interesting--I wonder if they're going to give SuSE a run for the money? " Looks like they are opening a German and UK office, and
have announced that Colin Tenwick (of Sybase) will be in charge.
After seeing too many Red Hat, Microsoft comparisons, I thought I'd clarify. Red Hat does not, and cannot, use Microsoft-like tactics. If they did, half of their developers would quit. Most of the key guys are Red Hat are folks like Alan Cox. Ethically, they won't work for the bad guy. Much of Red Hat's userbase would leave as well. Red Hat releases all of their code under the GPL. They won't include non-free software in their distrib. Even if they got a monopoly, they could not leverage it, since if people no longer liked them, they could use free-of-charge copies, or make fork distributions. They have a history of doing good stuff for the Linux community, and cooperating and even helping other members of the Linux community (including other Linux distributions) whenever possible. They're just a really good company. Other than Debian, no other distribution even begins to compare to Red Hat's solid ethical stance.
They're also not that near to a monopoly. SuSE had more sales, revenues and profits in 1999. Together, the other distributions have more marketshare than Red Hat.
Personally, I'm scared as heck of a proprietary distrib like SuSE gaining a monopoly, or even of the playing field being dominated by proprietary products (which may add more and more proprietary stuff to gain an advantage). Until other distribs change their stances, I will continue to run Debian, and support Debian and Red Hat.
Posted by Synsthe:
/ index.html
> I would like to support Linux comunity but Im
> not ready to support another Linux "BillGates".
I see this statement all too often, and as far as I'm concerned it's got no basis to it, other than jealousy. People are jealous that RedHat is succesful. People are jealous that they're not the ones who could be part of it.
Read this, for a very good story on why RedHat is not the MS of Linux:
http://salon.com/tech/feature/1999/07/14/redhat
..and once you're done reading that, get over it. =) RedHat is not trying to proprietarize Linux, and RedHat is doing nothing to keep the source from the people - if you want somebody to target, target Caldera; last I heard, you had to buy their cd to get the latest distro as it wasn't available from their FTP. RedHat provides theirs for download, and the source is there right alongside it. Yup. Sure looks like they're pulling anti-trust conspiracy moves to me.
This petty name calling and the distribution wars have got to stop. Having a favourite is one thing, blatanly calling down and refusing to acknowledge a distribution that doesn't agree with you is another thing entirely -- it's dangerous, both for your reputation in the eyes of others, and for Linux itself.
(Disclaimer: The author of this post does have a few bones to pick w/ RedHat, such as their refusal to support the LSB. RedHat is not completely innocent of all accusations leveled at them; they are _not_ however the Microsoft of Linux, not even close.)
--
Mark Waterous (mark@projectlinux.org)
Okay, so you think SuSE's GUI tools are better than the ones RH ships. That is your opinion. That's fine. But I would like to address some factual problems with your post.
/sbin and /usr/sbin in your path. That's because when you 'su' you only get the environment of the user you 'su' from, and normal users don't have /sbin and /usr/sbin in their path (and they shouldn't). If you 'su -' or login directly as root you do get both of them in your path and /sbin and /usr/sbin programs will work fine.
As for default X environments, RH 6.0 ships with GNOME as the default, *not* fvwm95. We also ship with a utility called 'switchdesk' that lets you switch with one click between KDE, GNOME, and AnotherLevel (an fvwm-2 configuration). How many other distributions do that?
Adding users? We have both adduser and useradd. Both work just fine. I'm not sure what your beef is with paths, either. Sure, if you 'su' you don't get
As people have already pointed out, all of the GUI config tools we ship can be worked around if you care for that sort of thing. 'fdisk' is still shipped, and is still an option in the install.
And at least RH users have the option of buying $2 CDs, unlike some distributions.
--Donnie
All the news of expansion is certainly going to fuel more anger and fear of Red Hat taking over the world. People have already pointed out the number one argument against this: Red Hat is pouring tons of money into code development, and releasing it ALL under the GPL. You may also be interested in some things Bob Young said in a recent interview with Linux Journal (I hope this qualifies as "fair use...")
"We don't do any exclusive contracts. For example, the guys at Metroworks - on their box, they say it was built for Red Hat Linux. That wasn't our idea - that was their idea for marketing purposes."
"...our goal at Red Hat has always been to expand the number of Linux users, not to dominate the Linux space."
"We have no interest (in squashing our competition). Slackware and Caldera and Debian are very much our allies in this effort to make Open Source the definition, to make Open Source a required feature of any operating system the user might consider."
"We understand our competition isn't with Caldera or SuSE - out competition is with Microsoft." (He was speaking about the new higher price on RH6.0, basically saying that it pays not for the software, but for a certain level of support that their users expect from them.)
"... we are not trying to compete in the Linux space, we are trying to compete with the very big proprietary OS vendors..."
Now, of course, the nature of this competition could change if Open Source becomes the standard - the competition would probably move to the other Linux vendors. But for now, according to Mr. Young (whom you can believe or disbelieve as you see fit), Red Hat's plan is to do the "right thing" for Linux.
As far as I'm concerned, the more Linux companies there are in Europe the better. At least when the Chinese use their stolen nuclear technology to wipe America off the map (except the bit that's inside Transmeta's metaphasic shield), Red Hat and SUSe will still be around.
If Red Hat switched their distribution (or one incarnation of it) so that all the final integration and packaging was done in Europe, added in some non-US derived crypto packages - ie ssh, gpg & mod_ssl, and were obviously careful about where orders were being fufilled from, they could produce a distro with decent crypto [at least until the EU finally rolls over and does everything the US asks].
This would definitely be a good thing.
I forgot to mention that, as he was dragged off, Anonymous Coward was overheard shouting, "First Post!"
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
Red Hat announced the acquisition of the popular slashdot site from Andover.net.
A spokesperson could not say whether the new site would be called "RedDot", "SlashHat", or even "RedSlashHatDot".
One regular slashdot reader named Anonymous Coward reportedly said, "Oh. So that's why I was seeing two or more Red Hat stories in the same afternoon."
The reader was immediately subdued, gagged, and called a troll.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
I've used both Red Hat (5.1,5.2,6.0) and SuSE (6.1).
Personally I believe that Red Hat works better out of the box than SuSE. SuSE include WAY more software that Red Hat. I am willing to fiddle with my Linux to get what I want. Most people that are jumping on the wagon aren't. I think Red Hat has an advantage for this reason.
There seems. to me at least over here in the US, to be a predeliction in Europe for going for more. This is after all what SuSE seems to be doing, and they are German.
I greedily installed more than 5 GB of software from my 5 CD SuSE distro. I haven't touched alot of it yet, but what I have...wow. The base SuSE includes Beowulf, Blender...why even bother it is a lot of stuff. Go to http://www.suse.de/e/lx61/new_in_6.1.html and see for yourself.
I think that this development will force SuSE to increase their out-of-box stability and force Red Hat to include more of the software they presently bundle separately.
My main problem with SuSE is that it uses KDE by default, and requires tinkering to get gnome running. Before you bleat, the first thing I tried was "startx gnome" which turns out to be the answer in the SuSE help. That didn't work.
My problem with KDE is merely that I want to keep my Linux FREE. I am using it now and it is actually a joy...I am not too motivated to "fix" it.
This is an important market for RedHat, as the US is for SuSE. I hope both of them benefit. I think the Linux community can't avoid a benefit.
BTW...
1,672,934.8th post YEEEAAAH !!!
Oh Darn. I am too early.
Don't post innacurate information
If you do, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.
Red Hat is really expanding quickly. First I read that they are opening a new office in San Francisco and now in Europe . . .
:))
I'm a Red Hat user myself, but I wonder sometimes about how much influence they could have over Linux develepment. Fortunately to this point they have been a good community member and have kept their commitment to Free Software by GPLing their code.
I guess I just wonder what effect if any their IPO and this seemingly rapid/massive expansion will have? What do people think?
(First Post? - That would be a first for me
--
Geoff