On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 16:58:42 -0500 Mike McCarty mike.mccarty@sbcglobal.net wrote:
I'd prefer that Linux flourish and not die just because MS is willing to do more of what is necessary to make life easier on customers than some other organization which supports Linux is willing to do.
Its apples and oranges. MS can afford to do whatever their customers want since Windows, Office, and all their other software is *theirs* (or licensed for their use).
Given enough financial incentive (a big enough customer base requesting feature x) MS can do whatever they want with their code to sell feature x to more customers.
Red Hat doesn't *own* Linux. While they can aid in development, and help point it in a certain direction, there are numerous things about Linux they have no control over and never will.
So... certainly RH is operating at a disadvantage with respect to MS.
....
But RH was accepting money and being paid to do something about it.
So long as they provide good service for a certain (high) % of their customers, they will do fine. A certain % will walk away unsatisfied. I think Red Hat does great given their challenges.