Re: [SLUG] Re: Moving from Red Hat

From: Robin \ (robin@roblimo.com)
Date: Thu Nov 18 2004 - 07:51:23 EST


>Fedora is the beta to every new version of RHEL that will come out.
>Fedora is the version you use if you want all of the bells and whistles,
>RHEL is what you pay for if you want stability and a OS that is
>certified to work with platforms like Oracle.
>

But the original reason for turning the "free" version of Red Hat into
Fedora -- and the reason Red Hat got touchy about cheap/free
redistributions of Red Hat using the trademarked "Red Hat" name -- was
support.

The company was getting overwhlemed with emails and calls from people
who had gotten Red Hat on a free CD included in a book or magazine or
had bought Red Hat CDs from CheapBytes or wherever. All those people
wanted free, personal support directly from Red Hat for products that
hadn't put any money into Red Hat's corporate pockets. This was not a
sustainable business model.

I had many long conversations about this problem with community
relations manager Jeremy Hogan (who has since left Red Hat for Lulu) and
other Red Hat people, including CEO Matt Szulik, before they decided to
come out with Fedora as a separate brand. I still think they handled the
new branding poorly, but they had to do *something* to keep the
support-hungry hordes at bay.

- Robin

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