On 7/22/23 02:29, Gordon Messmer wrote:> On 2023-07-21 00:30, Lee Thomas Stephen wrote:
>> But for my business, I do not want to pay Red Hat, Zimbra, or Google
>> Workspace.
>> Why ?
>> Because the general rule seems to be
>> Oh! You are an individual, we will offer you affordable/free service
>> What! You are a business, we will offer you extremely
'unaffordable'
>> service.
>> Because being a 'business' by default means you have a
'lot' of money
>> to waste.
>
>
> I'm not a Red Hat employee, so I'm not positive how they would
respond
> to that.? But, speaking as a customer who has worked with numerous
> enterprise support agreements over several decades, I want to suggest
> that the issue isn't that Red Hat assumes that businesses have a lot
> of money to spend, it's that they're targeting a set of the market
> that you might not be in right now.
>
> From my point of view, Red Hat doesn't really sell software. They give
> away software.? All of their software is available at no charge,
> typically in an unbranded release.? What Red Hat sells is support.
Does Red Hat give away software anymore?
> I don't mean helpdesk style
"support-me-when-something-breaks"
> support.? Support isn't something that exists only during incidents,
> support is a relationship. It's periodic meetings with your account
> manager and engineers. It's discussing your roadmap and your pain
> points regularly, and getting direction from them. It's the
> opportunity to tell Red Hat what your needs and priorities are, and
> helping them make decisions about where to allocate their engineers
> time to address the real needs of their customers. It's setting the
> direction for the company that builds the system that sits underneath
> your technical operations. That kind of support is what makes RHEL a
> valuable offering.
>
> If you don't need the kind of support that comes with enterprise
> offerings, then by all means, use the Free Software that Red Hat
> provides to the community.
I am confused.? Last month Red Hat announced that the source code would
not be published.
> But don't make the mistake of thinking that Red Hat is trying to mlik
> businesses simply because they're businesses.? Red Hat's offerings
are
> expensive because they're enterprise-focused support plans.
>
Businesses can purchase in a tax-advantageous manner that you can not as
an individual.? Companies do not pay tax on their expenses.
That might partially explain the higher rates for commercial products
and services.
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I am not an expert network manager.? I am a physician that used CentOS 8
on my three practice servers until the big "rug pull." At the time, I
had a choice between switching to the Stream or Oracle Linux 8.? I went
with Oracle Linux 8 and had no complaints.? Some have suggested that the
evil Oracle will execute the same IBM rug pull.? I considered that.?
That concern is a non-issue now.
The spirit of GPL was meant to force sharing and prevent the
commercialization of the volunteer work of many.? At the time, I was
confused about why IBM purchased Red Hat for an astronomical amount.?
Well, it is clear now.? As the readers know, there is a significant
defect in the GPL: A Comprehensive Analysis of the GPL Issues With the
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Business Model
<https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/> The
terms of the license are enforceable, not the spirit
I think the Rocky Linux workaround will eventually fail.? I expect IBM
already has a plan for all contingencies.
There is reason for anger.? Is there a reason for hope?
frank saporito md