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The real future of Linux (ZDNet)
ZDNet looks at Red Hat's strategy.
"Many Linux advocates who are appalled by this 'money grab' by Red Hat have been very vocal about their new distaste for Red Hat. Some even go so far as to suggest that Red Hat has outlived its usefulness. But they fail to understand the importance of a healthy company like Red Hat for the entire Linux industry."
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The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 15:55 UTC (Wed) by zozo (guest, #15171) [Link] A completely stupid and self-contradicting article :calling "a healthy company like Red Hat" a company that some lines earlier they say produces only losses is worthless. It also looses completely the point behind Linux : a de facto STANDARD. What is the business model of Linux ? Ask ATI, AMD, VIA, Siemens, SONY, Thomson, Peugeot, Nokia, ... not Red Hat. z.
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 15:57 UTC (Wed) by josh_stern (guest, #4868) [Link] This article is weird and stupid.The premise that a professional hosting company spends a lot of time calling RedHat for support on a per box basis strikes me as completely implausible. The idea that hardware vendors will fragment Linux by making their own distributions that require you to buy their hardware to use strikes me as even more silly. And then for dessert the author apparently takes seriously the idea that SCO somehow owns Linux.
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 16:11 UTC (Wed) by ccchips (guest, #3222) [Link] No on e knows the real future of anything. Linux has been drafted into weather prediction, for cryin' out loud, and how often do we really know the weather the next day?
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 21:18 UTC (Wed) by kokopelli (guest, #11341) [Link] 24- and even 48-hour forecasts are actually quite accurate. If there's significant uncertainty, it's usually known to the forecasters although they may not always communicate that to the public. (It's now routine to make multiple runs of the models with slightly different data, the uncertainty shows up disagreement over the location of fronts, etc.)In general, and this is an observation that applies to the SCO suit and this clueless columnist just as well, it's usually not hard to predict behavior a few 'ticks' out. But you can't predict it further out because you don't have perfect knowledge, and small differences can add up to something significant over time.
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 18, 2003 15:26 UTC (Thu) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] I think Red Hat guys know the weather the next day. Good luck to them.
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 16:16 UTC (Wed) by pjs (guest, #10927) [Link] Whoever wrote this article (Tim Landgrave, or some Microsoft PR outfit) is getting much smarter about disguising their FUD.The core arguement seems to be that Rackspace, Rackshack and Interland will soon be unable to use Redhat because Redhat is raising prices, and the increase matches some (unsupported) figures that are supposedly the profit per server. This probably sounds good on the surface, but these hosting companies don't buy Redhat's "advanced server" per machine. They install the free version of Redhat, which they probably download (if anyone has the bandwidth to easily download a few ISOs, they certainly do!) Gaint hosting companies have their own support staff, so it's highly unlikely they're paying much, if anything, to Redhat. But to a casual reader, it all sounds ok and looks like suddendly Redhat Linux isn't a viable OS for hosting anymore. Utter bull, but extreemly well written and probably able to trick a lot of people. But the FUD really starts in the "What's a Linux hosting company to do?" section.... where the answer is that it's too difficult to switch to another linux distribution, but somehow Microsoft Windows Server 2003 is supposedly the same cost as Redhat. Yeah, migrating from Redhat Linux to Windows is going to cost less than switching to Suse, Debian.... or simply continuing to use the free Redhat! After trashing Redhat some more ("outlived its usefulness"), the fear is really laid on thick, which the prediction that Redhat will lose the market to hardware vendors who will fracture Linux the way the proprietary Unix was fractured. Whoever wrote this is really trying hard, and anyone reading this far probably bought the made-up figures and doesn't know that these hosting companies use the 100% free redhat (usually with some of their own customizations), so why not use the "unix will fracture again" tactic. But to really top off the FUD, the last paragraph makes nice-sounding doom-and-gloom predictions based on the highly improbably outcome that SCO might win its suit against IBM. If, if, if... seriously, nobody believes SCO is going to defeat IBM, but that doesn't make for much FUD. But whoever wrote this well disguised FUD based off the usual SCO FUD and instead predicted two scenarios where Redhat gets screwed and "hosting companies, corporations and IBM competitors have to begin evaluating their options..." That is exactly what the author wants... evaluate your options to using linux. Yeah, what options. Oh, I forgot, they spelled it out quite clearly..... it's too hard to switch (unnecessarily) to a different linux distribution, so we better all switch to Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 18:35 UTC (Wed) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link] Whoever wrote this article (Tim Landgrave, or some Microsoft PR outfit) is getting much smarter about disguising their FUD.I don't know. It could be intentional FUD, but it's not very good FUD. After reading such statements as "Releasing this code back into the public domain as required by the GPL" my take is that it's just another clueless ZD columnist taking his best shot at something he doesn't understand.
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 16:24 UTC (Wed) by euvitudo (subscriber, #98) [Link] I find the following two sentences, from the author, quite revealing, but not surprising, considering his background:"...potential price increases from Linux hosting companies to cover the additional licensing and support costs will make the costs of hosting and supporting Linux closer to the costs of using Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 operating system. Hosting companies that have favored Linux for the 'free ride' that accompanied it are in for a huge pricing shock over the next 12 months while other companies seek to create profitable ventures from what has been a predominantly 'free' operating system." (Emphasis mine.)This is all too obvious to me that he is trying to spread even more MS FUD through the industry. Now, consider his background: http://techrepublic.com.com/5171-22-1027688.html and http://www.microsoftregionaldirectors.com/Public/..%5Cextranet%5CDirectorDetails.aspx?did=1070 I leave the rest to your imagination. Cheers!
The real future of Linux (ZDNet) Posted Sep 17, 2003 23:20 UTC (Wed) by penguinroar (guest, #14460) [Link] Zdnet rally isnt a good place to go for information anymore. In the early days it rocked but it has degraded into a MS PR shop in later years. Lewis A Mettler, an advocate often writing painfully true and fact based rebuttals to FUD articles like this one on Zdnet even got removed totally from zdnet forums. Zdnet just isnt a place to go for information on any topic.If i recall the numbers right MS owns about 46% of the stocks in cnet. Funny how money van buy you the truth isnt it?
The real future of ZDNet and MS Posted Sep 17, 2003 23:19 UTC (Wed) by dclayton (guest, #14075) [Link] It doesn't take much reading to see this author does not seem to know anything about the subject. First I think linux is past the point where losing a RedHat, SUSE or Mandrake makes too much difference. I have converted quite a few redhat servers to mandrake with little trouble because I don't like their default config and it takes too long to change it to what I think is reasonable. I don't think it would take much longer to change to SUSE. Redhat may even be better now than last time I ran it. Now going to M$ would be a job for someone else. I don't think I need a job that badly.And what was the paragraph toward the end about? I don't think SCO has a prayer in court even with his lord and master's big bucks. He seems to think that IBM will charge Redhat big bucks whether they buy SCO or just win the suit. I am sure SCO is going under sooner or later. Microsoft can pump enough money it will probably take a while. I think IBM will be a good member of the community. Dan
The real future of (ZDNet) Linux Posted Sep 18, 2003 2:32 UTC (Thu) by penguinista (guest, #308) [Link] Someday there will be an article about ZDNet, how it cast its fate with MS$ and became irrelevant. For me, that day is today.
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