----- Original Message -----
From: "David P. Schwartz" <davids@desertigloo.com>
To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.mybutt.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2002 3:10 AM
Subject: Re: AOL/TW wants RedHat


> The article says, "Red Hat makes its money by packaging Linux for
commercial and consumer use and by providing services and support to
> customers who use it. The operating system itself is freely available on
the Internet ...".  They're generating about $100M revenues
> annually.  It's not for the OS, it's for the support.

Im sure if you ask Dell in Ireland what they think of RH support im sure
youl get the truth.

As for their support progz from what i heard in a meeting @ linux IT Hq with
a RH Official
they are not far from Shite .. The Official wanted LinuxIT to push their
Support ..

This of course stepped on our ground with Consultancy which I was Senior.

The RH Guy did not stay long and left in a foul mood ,,

Im sure since you now know I have delt with RH both people and product and
that my comments are valid when i say words about it..

I dont think loosing RH would be a great loss to Linux .. I think it would
loose the M$ front and release linux as the free and open OS it is..

Nige
>
> Thus, AOL/TW is purchasing a fairly mature international support
organization.
>
> You've gotta wonder what they gained by purchasing Netscape.
>
> I don't see much benefit in trying to compete against Microsoft head-on.
They'd just piss off a big chunk of their users who would
> probably jump over to MSN in a heartbeat.
>
> AOL/TW is in the business of creating annuitized cashflows.  Support
contracts fit that model.  Competing head-to-head with Microsoft
> doesn't.
>
> They'd need a good support organization if they were to start selling
set-top boxes in a big way, tho.  It would be doubly helpful if
> those boxes happened to run RH or some other version of Linux...
>
> -David
>
> "J.Francois" wrote:
>
> > I am not sure how I like this.
> > Does it mean AOL/TW will start trying to make its users smarter?
> > Will they try to stop us pesky OpenSource users from making
> > anymore MP3s or ripping DVDs?
> >
> > You decide:
> > http://www.washtech.com/news/media/14759-1.html
> >
> > --
> > Jean Francois - JLF Sends...
> > "Tell them we are not Gods, but SysAdmins, which is the next best thing"
>
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