Whats next?

[jcstille]

Well I have been around RedHat for about 3 years now. It was all started by 5 guys in a small office. Now look what it has become. I love the success story. But whats next. The first huge release was 7.2. It is still considered by some to be the best RedHat release, not too GUI, but had enough to run for typical Linux users. It was also a very stable server. So then we move onto the 8 series. Too much GUI for server admins, and not enough for a user friendly desktop environment. Then came 9. It was the introduction of BlueCurve, the super GUI. Now don't get me wrong, this is great to get user friendly packages going. With dual support of 9 and 7.2 RedHat was splitting resources. So they make the announcement they will split their desktop and server suites. OK, a little change isn't bad. Linux Enterprise server is there for administrators and they adopt the Fedora project for their desktop environment. This could be good. A completely separate development road map and we are set to go. You would think I can either go desktop or I can go server. Now I go off and read http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/05/04/HNredhatdesktop_1.html They are making a commercial desktop.

Whats next?

Now I ask myself why did they take on the Fedora project? Now they have a Fedora Desktop, RedHat Desktop, and a RedHat Server.

(This reminds me of Microsoft's Windows ME, Windows NT, and Windows 98 Support all at once. We should learn from previous mistakes, don't take on too much)

Well thats my rant.

[crackers]

Why Fedora? In my opinion

Given: they do realize that they (RH) have a tremendous "fan" base, which has a very large number of "hobbyists"

1 - they wanted the pool for "beta" testing

2 - they didn't want to piss off said hobbyists, who would roundly castigate and hang them in effigy at /. and other places, not to mention severely eroding their chances in the corporate market

3 - (some might think me foolish) I think they also wanted to make sure that they didn't forget their own roots, even as they forge ahead into "Enterprise" computing.

They've freely admitted that Fedora is the "test bed" for their future commercial offerings. To me, that kind of upfront honesty is quite refreshing. So what if there's no support for it - this community is ample proof that the hobbyist community can support itself, which provides valuable feedback to not only the vendor, but the folks around the world working on the multitudes of projects that go into this thing.

Think about the 4K stacks thing: it was publicly posted as to why that option was chosen, fully aware that it was going to break some things. Immediately, people are posting on how to recompile kernels, one company publishes an RPM with 8K stacks, which will help their product, but also helps with other companies' products. And this is all in 3 weeks' time.

To me, it's simply wonderful and amazing - the Great Beast of the West has never been able to move that fast, especially in the last decade.

[jcstille]

Oh I agree, I just like to hear other opinions on the issue. I just don't want it to get to a place where it can't turn back, and I guess Fedora does help them keep an easy to use open source presence for the enthusiast market.

[Ug]

Mind you a user community has grown around Fedora, which never existed for Red Hat.