[Novalug] RedHat Desktop Subscription Model

[David A. Cafaro]

1. No, I have no apprehension with purchasing Red Hat for my  
enterprise level linux needs.

2. Yes, I have apprehension with purchasing Red Hat for my personal  
small business needs.

3. No, I have no apprehension with purchasing Red Hat for my personal  
needs, as Re dHat isn't appropriate at all.

To qualify those statements here are some perspective:

1. We depend on tested quality assured production servers.  We need  
them to provide assurance that certain applications have been tested  
and confirmed to work on particular hardware for our purposes.  Red  
Hat provides that.  They provide timely and tested security updates.   
They provide a point of contact for resolution of software issues.   
They guarantee a particular amount of time that updates will be  
provided.  That is why we pay for Red Hat products at my day job.

2. I have a small time hosting business.  Not many clients, not very  
demanding, not planning on ever being big.  I do it mostly to offset  
the cost of having my own co-located server.  As I'm very technical  
and can resolve most of my own software technical issues, I go with  
CentOS.  My business doesn't need nor can it afford the Enterprise  
level of Red Hat.  That's fine.

3. For my desktop and most personal use I want cutting edge  
technology, latest drivers and new stuff.  Red Hat is about  
stability, not cutting edge.  I run Fedora on most of my linux  
desktops and laptops.  It does what I need Linux wise, provides the  
latest software and lets me run an RPM based distro which I like.   
Again, I can resolve most of my own technical issues.  This usage is  
not Red Hats target audience (or it doesn't appear to be to me).

As for comparing to Windows XP?  Sure you can buy Windows XP SP2  
Retail for $270/life vs RH Workstation for $179/yearly.  Have you  
tried to get "support" on an issue with XP from Microsoft for that  
purchase?  How long has it taken, or did they ever respond?  They may  
have changed recently, but last I tried a couple years ago I felt I  
might have well sent my emails to /dev/null.  Also, if a new version  
of Windows comes out (you know like Vista) and you want to upgrade  
(probably not like Vista), how much does it cost?  Looks like about  
$200 (for vista business upgrade from amazon).  RH Workstation  
upgrades are free as long as you have an active subscription.  Also  
RH Basic support includes a 2 day guaranteed response (likely email)  
to support requests.  And just to give you an idea of what RH support  
can be like.  I found a bug in the SELinux Policy GUI tool (This was  
on RHEL 5.1 server), I submitted a bug report via bugzilla, it was  
fixed the next day and a src package for testing the fix was ready.   
Of course that wasn't even using official paid support :-).

Final note that $179 support/year cost includes your office products  
(a separate $300+ purchase for the Microsoft type), your webserver,  
database, middleware (tomcat), software development stack, etc.  All  
generally separate purchases and separate support going the Microsoft  
way.  Now you may get some  of this cheaper depending on how you  
purchase your software, and you could use some of the same opensource  
software for your windows desktop, but I'm just comparing the general  
Microsoft way vs the Red Hat way.  There are always deals to be found  
and compromises to be made.

In general it boils down to what level of support you want and do you  
need the guarantees the Red Hat offers.  If not, then look at Centos,  
or if you aren't tied to RedHat software ways, look at SUSE/Ubuntu/ 
etc...

But, in the end, no, for what RedHat is for, I don't have any  
apprehension paying the Red Hat price where appropriate.

Cheers,
David



On Mar 13, 2008, at 8:12 PM, Ken Kauffman wrote:

> Does anyone have the same apprehension with purchasing RedHat?
>
> Here is the issue.  I have no problem paying for a stable Linux  
> distribution for the desktop with support offerings.  RedHat would  
> be my choice over SuSE based on personal experience in the past.   
> My apprehension is that the RedHat desktop is licensed annually.
>
> Here is the rub.  I can purchase Windows XP Pro for about $179  
> today.  I can also purchase RH Workstation for $179, however, after  
> one year I have to fork up another $179 for support.  With Windows,  
> I continue to get security patches for the life of the product.
>
> Or -- is the RedHat model only geared for businesses and not  
> personal adopters?  Would CentOS be the better option as a result?   
> And if so, can I install packages intended for RedHat the same on  
> CentOS?  (Think Oracle)
>
> The reason I raise this is that I do not want to tangle with the  
> bleeding edge of Fedora.  My dilemma with the whole wireless  
> failures of Fedora is the reason I'm looking for a pay for support  
> model for personal use.
>
> I realize there are other solid offerings out there in the "free"  
> space, but what is in the paid support space that doesn't take a  
> chunk out of my wallet each year?
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Ken
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David A. Cafaro <dac at cafaro.net>
Cafaro's Ramblings:  www.cafaro.net