enterprise distribution

[gerald.feldman at hp.com (Jerry Feldman)]

On Wednesday 16 March 2005 2:28 pm, Matt Shields wrote:
> The guy that runs Lineox has critized us because we don't charge
> saying that because he earns money from his distro that his updates
> are done more timely and that his distro is more benificial to
> businesses. ?Honestly, a 24 hour turnaround, which is what CentOS has,
> I think is really good. ? Most times CentOS gets the updates out that
> same day.
Your statements bring up some interesting questions. 
Years ago, a budding new distribution came out funded by Ray Noorda called 
Caldera. The concept was to provide a shrinkwrapped version of Linux 
targeted to the corporate suit mentality. Essentially, a corporation wants 
a reliable system that they can contact in case of trouble. SCO (classic) 
was very successful with desktop Unix at the corporate level. (Now the 
company has evolved into a legal conduit to sue IBM et. al).

We can look at the history of the PC. 
When the first desktop computers were introduced in the late '70s, few found 
their way to the corporate desktop. Some software, such as VisiCalc started 
to get the feet in the door. However, in comes IBM with a piece of junk, 
and instantly, just about every corporate accountant had one on their desk. 
Was IBM's marketing that good? What they did was to legitimize the PC. 
Something, Apple et. al. could not do. I think the same is with enterprize 
Linux. The market is a bit different today, but the same vision applies, 
who's behind the product. Both Red Hat and SuSE(Novell) are well known to 
the corporate suits. 

> Why is it that people think they have to pay money for reliability????
> ?Take Debian or Slackware.
Your statements brings up some interesting questions. 
The enterprise vendors, such as Red Hat and SuSE are not selling the bits, 
they are selling the support and services. The corporate mentality is 
always going to question the freebie, whether good or bad. 

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gerald.feldman at hp.com>
Partner Technology Access Center (contractor) (PTAC-MA)
Hewlett-Packard Co.
550 King Street LKG2a-X2
Littleton, Ma. 01460
 (978)506-5243