Desktop Relevance

[jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org (Jarod Wilson)]

On Thursday 26 March 2009 11:50:28 Greg Rundlett wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 11:17 AM, Jarod Wilson <jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > On Thursday 26 March 2009 10:47:32 Dan Ritter wrote:
> >> On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 10:14:10AM -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> >> >
> 
> [snip]
> 
> > Bottom line is that a publicly traded company has to make money, and the
> > easiest way to make money on Linux is in the data center. Making money
> > on the desktop is HARD. Red Hat very much likes to see more Linux on the
> > desktop, but it simply doesn't make financial sense to try to sell and
> > support Linux on the desktop. You'd have to build up market share slowly
> > over time, and until you reach critical mass, which may well be never,
> > you aren't going to actually make any money. Investors don't take kindly
> > to things like that, its jut cold hard business facts.
> 
> The idea that business is all about making the most amount of money
> for the least amount of effort is what is wrong with America.   This
> is one of the things that has to change.  I don't know how, except to
> imagine that greater transparency could lead to greater accountability
> in an ethical sense. Businesses need to be more like people - honest,
> fair, co-operative, humble.  This is way off-topic perhaps.  Or, it is
> exactly why so many people are interested in Technology Freedom (FOSS)
> -- because it is honest, fair, co-operative and humble.

I'm assuming you're talking about businesses in general, and not Red Hat
in particular, as I find Red Hat to be the most honest, fair, co-operative
and humble company I've ever worked for, and does open source the Right
Way, actively participating in upstream communities, open-sourcing just
about everything (yay, RHN Satellite finally on the list, just that ugly
dep on an Oracle DB to deal with...), etc.

Note that despite not currently being willing to put out a commercially 
supported desktop, Red Hat does still devote quite a few dollars toward
developers who actively work on improving the Linux desktop, and does
put out what I find to be a very good desktop-friendly community release.
But then I'm biased. :)

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w at public.gmane.org