RedHat, Fedora future?

[Jef Spaleta]

Tim Kossack wrote:
> > - We can't fix bugs in code we don't have. BAD.

> your competition obviously sees that not as a compelling reason to not
> include prop. plugs.

You keep making this same sort of arguments...you keep assuming the
competitors in this space are doing it with your best interests at
heart.  I would argue they are deliberately acting against your best
interests...They are giving you what you think you want, at the expense
technical quality of the product.  What you call polish..i call a thin
layer of chrome that will flake away pretty easily when distressed.

It's like McDonald's offering to supersize yer meal for you for only
39cents more. Sure...you want the extra food...buts its bad for you to
eat so much...bad for you to eat so much fattening unhealthy crap.
McDonald's knows it...you know it...but you want it anyway...and they
will give it to you, cuz yer willing to fork over the money.  And guess
what, the other fast food chains do it too...and they know its bad for
you..but they do it too...because they want to make money...they don't
want to make you healthy.  And as a result, the USA is the land of
obesity.  Getting what you think you want...isn't always good. 
Proprietary technology addons, is supersizing in the linux world.  It's
not good for long term health.  

If open source desktops are going to compete...they need to bring open
source technology solutions to the table and PROMOTE them.  Microsoft
and Apple each have their own multimedia technology for a reason....they
sure as hell are NOT going to base their business on the technology of a
competitor. Open source needs to implement and support its own open
technology solutions to solve problems...or its doomed to failure.  One
could argue, Red Hat's insistence on open source solutions in its
products is in everyone's long term best interests...and I for one..give
Red Hat immense respect for continuing to attempt to drive open source 
solutions. It might not be obvious to you how involved Red Hat is in
various projects, because Red Hat doesn't make it a point generate press
about what upstream projects their employees are directly invovled in.
Your comments certaintly seem to suggest that you think red hat isn't
actively involved in a number of open source project fronts.
BUt let me give you a relevant example....open source re-implementations
of java:
http://people.redhat.com/gbenson/naoko/
http://sources.redhat.com/rhug/index.html

and if you want to really drool as a desktop user:
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/gcjwebplugin/

The problem is you want it NOW...you want a shortcut. There is no
shortcut. For open source to really flurish, you have to value open
source through the whole software stack.  Don't let Sun or Novell fool
you. Vendor lock-in can happen just as easily above the operating system
layer...in the middle ware or application layer....and sadly it can
happen at the media content layer as well if you want to think in terms
of a home desktop user.  Hopefully Red Hat will take some of that new
desktop developer talent its hiring and throw some manhours towards a
variety of upstream open source project with wide desktop applicability
(cough xiph cough)  

-jef"the future is open"spaleta 



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