OT: I feel vindicated ...

[Michael Hipp]

Net Llama! wrote:
> I know i'm the resident RH whore and all, but i just don't see what the
> big deal is here.

It's a big deal mostly to those of us that felt "burned" by their moves.

But it's also possibly a big deal because of the very point you made 
below - they isolated a significant part of their potential customer 
base. In a sense they made a mistake similar to the forgettable United 
Linux.

> I think RH is just using this as an excuse for the fact
> that they've got some real competition for the first time.

It's worth remembering that the competition has really sprung to life in 
the last 2 years and filled the void. SuSE was an important but very 
small player. Now Novell looks like a near equal with RH. And the 
stature of "alternative" distros has never been higher.

> Fedora is an
> excellent distro that meets all of my needs.

Yes. It is. But it isn't Red Hat Linux. And that's the (admittedly 
emotional) rub; it goes something like this: "they don't want me as a 
customer, but it's okay if I use Fedora, just as long as someone like me 
isn't seen running something that has their high and mighty name on it".

That's not what they really intended, of course. But when you've been 
abandoned your thoughts turn anywhere besides empathy with your abandoner.

Michael