Fedora Desktop future- RedHat moves

[Da Rock]

On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 11:39 -0600, Robin Laing wrote:
> Alastair Neil wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 10:23 PM, Ric Moore <wayward4now at gmail.com 
> > <mailto:wayward4now at gmail.com>> wrote:
> > 
> >     On Tue, 2008-04-22 at 13:05 -0700, Francis Earl wrote:
> >      > That article ENTIRELY got it wrong. All RedHat said was they won't be
> >      > pushing Linux on the consumer desktop for some time. They make their
> >      > money from servers, and they are a company, so it's not in their best
> >      > interest to have a product they aren't profiting from.
> > 
> >     OTOH, as I've said for years, desktops beget servers. Who in their right
> >     mind would have ever thought that Windows would become a choice as a
> >     server platform?? The Windows3.1 users got used to the desktop and it
> >     rolled from there. Disregard the desktops of college entry level users,
> >     and they'll migrate with their favorite platform and comfort level to
> >     using it to admin their future server needs. What's not to understand in
> >     this? RedHat could very well be blowing their lead and not seeing it
> >     until too late in the game to recover.
> > 
> >     We (RH) used to have college programs all over the place ...usually
> >     promoted as install fests at Universities. I haven't heard of one in the
> >     press for years now. Servers are where the money is, no doubt. But, it
> >     is better IMHO to have the future admins loyalty through the user
> >     desktop by catering to them. I spent years in Marketing. I learned to
> >     never EVER disregard the little guy. He might become the next purchasing
> >     agent and/or decision maker. My two cents, Ric
> > 
> > 
> > An where has it got Microsoft? 20 years and countless billions invested 
> > in marketing and they still manage only 30% of the server market.
> > 
> > True, Novel lost out to WinNT in part because users got used to the 
> > Windows interface and wanted a similar experience for managing their 
> > servers.  I refuse to believe that there is such a  gulf between Ubuntu 
> > and RHEL in functionality that users would have the same visceral 
> > reaction and defect in droves from RH to Ubuntu - because they love 
> > brown backgrounds on their Gnome desktops.  Red Hat has focused its 
> > desktop efforts on crafting a distribution that is best in class for 
> > administering servers, just as SUSE is crafting a business productivity 
> > centric desktop distribution with an emphasis on Windows 
> > interoperability (thus Evolution, Mono/silverlight and "Don't Sue us 
> > please Bill!" agreements).  These distros have carved their own niches, 
> > I don't as yet know what Ubuntu's niche is - windows malcontents? home 
> > tinkerers/hobyists?  Small Home Office?  You could argue that this is 
> > exactly the way linux started and who knows in 10 or 20 years maybe they 
> > will have a significant enterprise share, however, I doubt it.  Being 
> > able to play MP3's out of the box rarely makes it onto a enterprise 
> > server deployment specification.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> This is an interesting comment.  Just a few days ago, I read an article 
> about Microsoft pointing out companies that have moved from Linux 
> servers due to the desktop support as well as gui management tools.  Of 
> course I hear that they are now adding more command line tools for 
> administration due to demand.
> 
> I see two aspects to this part of the debate.
> 
> If people use Linux at work, they will be more likely to use it at home. 
>   They will use what they are familiar with.  Most computer users are 
> not that intelligent to using their computers.  Some cannot even figure 
> out how to update their computers.
> 
> As for MS not getting a larger server share, this is a strange aspect. 
> Part of the issue in the past has been many admins that new Unix found 
> it easier to move to Linux from Solaris or other versions.  The share of 
> Windows servers from what I am reading is increasing.  I see this as a 
> result of the new point and click mentality.  If you cannot click it, 
> then you cannot manage it.  Damn kids today.  :)
> 

I know thats the mentality, but my god thats bullshit! I'll use cli
anyday for major tasks- try migrating stats support on a IIS server with
400+ sites then you'll know!

> FWIW, this thread has brought out many of the comments that have been 
> stated in this article.
> 
> Did Canonical Just Get Punked by Red Hat and Novell?
> http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2008/04/did-canonical-j.html
> 
> Basically, the announcements are to support the server sales.
> 
> I did like this comment though.
> 
> "Curiously, very little attention was paid to Ron Hovespian's comments 
> on Novell's similar plans, made before Red Hat's. If I were Novell, I 
> would take this as a bad sign. Not only did the mainstream media not 
> pick up on Novell's news, but even most of the hard-line Linux 
> blogosphere wrote them off with nary so much as a "meh" And if you can't 
> get those folks mad, you must be doing something wrong! :)"
> 
>  From the people that I know, the reason to move from Fedora is the 
> upgrade path being easier.  Longer support is appreciated.  Some of 
> these people are also old time Solaris users as well.
> 
> I will stick with Fedora as long as I can get third party application 
> that me and my family use.  If they are only available on Ubuntu, then I 
> will have to move.

I think it comes down to ease of support as well. If support doesn't
keep up then the software is rendered useless. Ie MPlayer and codecs...