[PLUG] Re: Redhat to Fedora change

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Tue Nov 4 22:32:02 UTC 2003


The talk has been drifting towards "what will we do after Redhat goes
away" and "Redhat is abandoning the small users".  Again, the Redhat
in the box on the shelves is being replaced by the very similar 
Fedora Core 1.  There is very little difference between Fedora Core 1
and what any Redhat user would expect from "Redhat 10".  Probably the
main difference I have noticed is that Fedora Core has much more 
recent versions than I would expect to find in a box version coming
out about now.  Lag has dropped from months to weeks.

Since Redhat started releasing distros in boxes, high speed internet
has become much more widespread, and CDROM burners have gotten a lot
faster and cheaper.  It is true that I can still drive to CompUsa and
buy a boxed distro in somewhat less clock time than I can download a
distro from the web, but that is assuming the stores are open during
the Geek Standard Day.  :-)  Where do you go for a distro at 4AM? 
Fedora is out there, and on a lot of mirrors. 

The Fedora core release will be available in a few days, and it will
match people's expectations for Redhat 10.  Too bad it won't be ready
for the next PLUG meeting.  The news on the Fedora user's list is
that Redhat QA found a problem in Fedora serious enough to delay the
core release until after more testing.  That is a damned good reason
for a delay, and indicates that Redhat is taking Fedora seriously.
Imagine what would have happened if Redhat had just sent an image
off to the CD stamping plant - or paid for a time slot.  All the 
indications are that Fedora will be superior to boxed Redhat.

Now, if any of you feels that there must be a shelf replacement for
Redhat 10, you can get some Fedora CDROMs manufactured and boxed
and peddle them to the software wholesalers yourself.  I imagine
you could have something on the shelf by January or so, and Redhat
would have no issues with that.  Or you could wholesale sets to
various user's groups - the bake sale version of Fedora.  Nothing
is stopping us from putting copies of Fedora in every library in
Oregon.   We have a lot more options to spread Fedora than we did
with the "owned" Redhat.

As Eric said, the interesting question will be the nature of Core 2.
Redhat is still putting effort into Fedora;  after all, it is how
technology gets tested before it goes into their Enterprise product.
Fedora is unlikely to drift very far from existing ways of doing
things, or get very far behind, or piss off too many users.  Redhat
wants to keep us as "gamma" testers for Enterprise.

I am working to get Suse-style logrotate added to the Fedora Core 2.
By opening the Fedora process up the way they have, Redhat is losing
some control over direction but getting a distro a lot less affected
by NIH syndrome.  Debian and Suse users may wish to push the Fedora
team to incorporate more of their favorite features;  a "blended" 
distro might be more attractive to all.

The most likely downside is that Fedora will be too advanced and 
beta, and that we will spend more time chasing early-adopter bugs.
OTOH, unless you ran up2date immediately after an install, users
of Redhat were getting early-adopter bugs too, 6 months after the
rest of the downloading world.

Overall, I think I am a lot more likely to be pleased than troubled
with this change, a year from now.  And if I am wrong, there are so
many other tasty distros to switch to...

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom           keithl at ieee.org         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs




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