Some of you may have read this already, and if so please keep your flamethrower in the closet.
Some of these questions have been debated recently on BRLUG, and I think Szulik gives some interesting questions and answers to GPL'd hardware support, licensing, current "state of Linux desktop", free and open source issues, etc... On GPL'd hardware support... >7) Diverse Hardware Support - by capt.Hij > One of the biggest issues for putting gnu/linux on the desktop is more > support for >hardware. I understand why Red Hat is supporting Fedora and > focusing more on industrial >clients, but I am concerned about the long term > implications. What will Red Hat be doing >to increase hardware compatibility > and support? Without an official Red Hat "civilian" >distribution do you feel > that you will have the ability to sway hardware manufacturers to >support > gnu/linux? >Szulik: >3 important activites will have to take place before we see a significant increase in GPL'd >hardware driver support. A large marketplace develops, customer demand and a viable >supplier exists to deliver and service the integration. I'd say we are at the early stages >worldwide to respond to these requirements. Increasingly we are receiving more support >as compared to 24 months ago. I believe the civilian version will be filled by Fedora which >will develop into a solution for many. On current state of desktop Linux .... Interesting comments and I happen to agree! >3) What's next? - by Mr. Sketch >For the average person, RedHat _is_ Linux. Who do you believe will replace you as being >the defacto Linux distribution for the average person? >Szulik: >The definition of average should be clear. For the 'average' reader of Slashdot, the Fedora >Project is the ideal Linux distribution. For the average knowledge worker in an office >setting, we believe Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.3 WS is appropriate. For the average >person that needs to be able to plug in their digital camera without going into the terminal >window, we think that the user's experience with any brand of Linux will be sub-par. We >hope that consumer-focused technologies will thrive and mature in the Fedora Project >setting. When the code is production quality, Red Hat will make them available as part of >a supported distribution. On licensing: >10b) Academics... - by PseudononymousCoward >Mr. Szulik, >As a professor at a Big-10 University, I now find myself in the curious situation that >RedHat, for either server or workstation usage, is more expensive than Windows, owing to >the terms that MS offers academia and the new licensing of RH products. Most >Universities can _purchase_ Win2k3 Server for the price of one year of RHEL WS support. >Does academia constitute one more market segment that RH is no longer contesting? >Szulik: We have rolled out an education plan which was priced between $25 and $50 for client >and server quantity one for an annual subscription. I believe the pricing and service >relationship will begin to address a void filled by the Red Hat Linux transition at an >affordable price.
