I think that now is a really good time for Mandrake to reconsider their "end
of life" policy. Here's how I see it: Redhat has effectively shut out the
very folks who made their distro popular by changing their update system to
a paid service and by saying that they'll only support a release for 1 year.
So now no admin in his right mind would download Redhat and install it on a
server or even purchase the standard box set for a server installation. In
fact, really the only viable Redhat server solution today is the "Advanced
Server" product. It's been a real double barrel slap in the face for many
loyal Redhat users.
Mandrake right now has the opportunity to gather many of those disillusioned
Redhat users in one fell swoop by announcing that they will provide security
updates for the upcoming 9.1 release for 3 years. Mandrake uses a superior
system for distributing updates (one that doesn't overload their own
servers), so that, coupled with Mandrake's excellent utilities, puts the
equation already in Mandrake's favor as opposed to Suse and other distros.
Now all that is needed is a clearly longer and reasonable support term and
Mandrake will be THE choice for small time admins wanting to leave Redhat.
This should be done before a group forms to build free updates for Redhat
products after EOL, which will happen I think in about a year when dead
versions start piling up.
I realize that supporting an old distro costs a lot of money and Mandrake is
currently broke. I also realize that Mandrake has already stated their own
EOL policy. However, I believe that if Mandrake can see this opportunity
and capitalize on it, their user base will expand greatly. Otherwise, many
admins will simply bite the bullet and learn how to live with Debian. I
like Mandrake's commitment to open-source, and I think they have the best
distro out there overall. But for now, I have to choose Debian. I hope
Mandrake can give me a reason to do otherwise.
Oh and one more thing. For God's sake please don't release iso's this time
until AFTER the retail product is on shelves.
Sincerely,
Jim Hubbard
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Rockingham County Linux Users Group
www.rock.lug.net
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