[TriLUG] different versions of 7.2 for sale]

Adrian Likins alikins at redhat.com
Tue Oct 23 23:36:12 EDT 2001


On Tue, Oct 23, 2001 at 01:43:13PM -0400, Paul D. Boyle wrote:
> Beth Ellison wrote:
> > 
> > >Matt Jezorek quoted Beth Ellison writing:
> > >This idea of that RedHat isn't focusing on the desktop market is a
> > >little schizoid on RedHat's part and smacks of intellectual dishonesty.
> > 
> > Not sure I get what you mean by "intellectual dishonesty." Care to 
> > elaborate?
>
 
> RedHat distributions in recent released have
> become more and more bloated with "desktop" amenities.  It just seemed
> to me that RedHat was trying to cater more and more to the desktop crowd.
>
	I suspect thats more an artifact of Linux and Free/Open Source
software as whole becoming more desktop oriented. Red Hat Linux is
pretty much a reflection of whats happening externally. I think
we focus on that area even less than the community at large does. 
 
> Now we hear that RedHat is not "focusing" on the desktop market (despite
> the effort and support they have put into developing a Linux desktop), but
> concentrating on the server market.  I called the remark intellectually
> dishonest because it is not that RedHat is not focusing on the desktop
> market but it is that they are not being successful in penetrating the
> Microsoft desktop monopoly. 

	Based on allocated resources, I dont perceive Red Hat, Inc
as focusing on the desktop. I dont think we ever have for that matter,
and never claimed to. I dont quite follow your logic on this one...

> Naturally, admitting to RedHat shareholders
> that RedHat failing at their effort to grow market share the desktop
> market won't play well, so they lie and they say, "well, we're not really
> focusing on that market anyway; it's the server market we are after."
> Their words and their actions are not congruous.
> 
	I would tend to disagree. The fact is, people will jump up
and down and write reams about what color the new desktop background is,
while completely ignoring the huge amount of work that goes into the
kernel for performance and stability. If it looks like the focus is
on the desktop, I suspect it's an illusion. If people want to
convince themselves thats what our focus is, not much I can do
to stop them (though, I really dont understand why any one would
do that... I mean, whats the motivation for saying "oh, you say you
arent focusing on the desktop, but look at the new gnome rpms you
included!!! " ?.)

	

	Wonder if people accuse Mandrake of secretly focusing on
embedded clients.... ;->

Adrian 



More information about the TriLUG mailing list