On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 13:50, David Krider wrote: > A couple days ago, I asked about RedHat's plans for a "workstation" > distribution. Now we have the answers. But it begs another question. > Will anything be changing about the "consumer" versions of the OS? We > know that they will only have a year of support going forward (which I > can understand -- don't *like* -- but understand), but will these too go > the way of source distros unless you pay for the boxed sets? > > I suppose this is another case of, "Hey, do you see it on the web site? > No? Fine. Don't ask." But I'm sort of worried about my favorite distro. > I've looked at Gentoo, Mandrake, and Debian (and Slackware, a long time > ago), and I honestly think they all pale in comparison to RedHat. > However, I can't afford to buy a new boxed set every 12 months. At that > rate, there's no savings over using Windows, where you pay a couple > hundred every couple years. And not to say that using Linux has to save > you that kind of money, I guess, but it's a definite advantage. > > I guess what I'm ultimately asking is whether we should be on the > lookout for some more direction on the consumer version, or if these > "enterprise" version announcements are totally independent of those plans.
Think of it like this. The consumer OS moves quickly (a release every six months or so). This is where we will try out new ideas and roll in the latest stuff from the open source community. Our focus for this line is to drive things forward as fast as we can. We shortened the support time on this line so that we can focus on rapid improvement rather than long-term support. The Enterprise line moves more slowly (a release every 12-16 months). Features that have proven themselves in the consumer line will be rolled into the Enterprise line. The focus for this line is stability, security, and supportability. We expect customers to pay us for this additional support. The Enterprise line and the changes to the support level of the consumer line will allow the consumer line to move faster than in the past. This will help us address one of the most common criticisms of Red Hat Linux over the years, which is that we aren't as cutting edge as some of the other distros. As you can see, eliminating the consumer OS would deprive the Enterprise line of the testing, debugging, and development benefits that the consumer OS provides. So we have no reason to discontinue it. I hope the answers your questions. Cheers, Brent -- Phoebe-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/phoebe-list
