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Re: [school-discuss] The end of Red Hat support




bob@bobsewell.com wrote:

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 06:05, Chris Schwan wrote:

Matthew Szulik, chief executive of Linux vendor Red Hat, said on
Monday that although Linux is capable of exceeding expectations for
corporate users, home users should stick with Windows: "I would say
that for the consumer market place, Windows probably continues to be
the right product line," he said. "I would argue that from the
device-driver standpoint and perhaps some of the other traditional
functionality, for that classic consumer purchaser, it is my view
that (Linux) technology needs to mature a little bit more."

That little gem seems to have cost their stock value about 12% in one day.

Cheers; Leon

I have to wonder _if_ Mr. Szulik was (or wasn't) paid to go public with that viewpoint. I'm finding it difficult to believe that hints of this viewpoint didn't surface prior to today.
Bob,

They have surfaced prior to today. I interviewed Leigh Day back in August. I reported the interview for desktoplinux.com in this article:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT8086595350.html

At the time, Red Hat planned to come out with the killer desktop. But, most people in the industry regard Red Hat as contentious and very difficult when it comes to doing business with them. So, the one company that really does business with them is Dell. Everyone else has written them off.

Now, consider Dell. They will not sell Linux on the desktop while HP will and does. So, since Dell doesn't want a Linux desktop (at least they told me that) why wouldn't Red Hat change its approach and benefit its main suitor.

As Novell's VP said, Red Hat was an acquistion candidate - so they are for sale.

What better way to get them out of the way than to have Dell buy them?

Do you think Dell can afford it?

While these thoughts are primarily my opinion, one might want to consider them in the days to come.