Telco switches to Ubuntu from RHEL for one reason...

[kristian.hermansen-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org (Kristian Erik Hermansen)]

On 8/8/07, Matthew Gillen <me-5yx05kfkO/aqeI1yJSURBw at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Can you elaborate on how Fedora is not geared toward businesses?

Fedora users cannot purchase official support as they can with Red
Hat.  Canonical offers a support program for Ubuntu through their
website.

http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid

If an enterprise wants Red Hat-based support, they can't be running
Fedora.  Or maybe you know of some deal where this is possible?

> Not really.  If it were just a bunch of bits, then Fedora would have an
> official commercial repo too (if not now, then soon).  There's nothing special
> (from a purely technical standpoint) about Ubuntu that allows them to have
> such a thing and not Fedora (or Debian for that matter).

And Fedora just as well could have a commercial repository.  But maybe
the users don't want it.  I have no idea...

> It's also about your rights with the software.  Can I, as a sys-admin, make an
> image of a given system and replicate it as much as I want?  Or do I have to
> keep track of software licenses, and generate new license keys for each new
> machine, etc.  Can I derive my own custom/specialized distribution from the
> packages that distro X provides?  Or do I have to examine each package to
> check it's licensing to see if I'm allowed to re-distribute it?

You can do whatever you want.  If you want an entirely free Ubuntu,
use Gobuntu.  It is everything you want, without any proprietary code
creeping into your distro :-)

> This is where the "official" package restrictions in Fedora and Debian provide
> a lot of value: I know that every package is freely redistributable without
> having to spend any time at all looking at individual packages.  Debian's
> strict adherence to this policy was no doubt a boon to Ubuntu when it was
> first getting off the ground...

That is why repositories are separated into main, restricted,
universe, and multiverse.  main == 2200 core packages.  Restricted is
less than 10 packages or so.  Universe is everything that is user
contributed and free.  Multiverse is the stuff that has non-free
licensing pertaining to modifications, but is distributable.  You have
many options.  If you want, only use main and universe and leave off
restricted and multiverse.  Use the source Luke :-)
-- 
Kristian Erik Hermansen

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