How not to sell Linux [LWN.net]

How not to sell Linux

Posted May 7, 2008 7:55 UTC (Wed) by Hanno (subscriber, #41730)
Parent article: How not to sell embedded Linux

Almost related to the topic, not long ago I got an unsolicited sales call from Redhat (!),
with the classic fud-based strategy used against Debian:

http://www.hanno.de/blog/2007/fud-in-the-linux-world/

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How not to sell Linux

Posted May 8, 2008 8:43 UTC (Thu) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]

In a business context the Red Hat question is spot-on.

I've seen several cases where a Debian lover fool managed to get any kind of Linux blacklisted
in his organisation by putting his head in the sand and refusing to consider the support
question.

Real-world IT deployments (as opposed to local experiments) are all about managing risks,
which means considering risks, and risk is fear, so by your definition anyone engaging in
real-world deployment is FUD-ing.

FUD?

Posted May 9, 2008 6:37 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

Yes, you may not have liked it, but the question is legitimate. And I'm not sure it is FUD: the salesperson is not saying "your machines will go down in flames", but "when they fail, what will you do?".

The link you provide in the comments to your blog counters "I'm not going to use some unsupported hacker-ware on my system" with "Point them at http://www.caldera.com or http://www.linuxcare.com and point out that they can buy a service contract there". See, support is actually a valid thing to request in a business context. I use Debian on all my machines at home, but at work I would rather recommend Red Hat.