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What makes us Red Hat

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Re: What makes us Red Hat

#21

Post by Panini_Jones »

yeukhon wrote: post #13
rrdharan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're the most successful free software business in history. Aren't they also the only successful free software business in history? Asking seriously, since I am not aware of any other examples. And I suppose it depends on your definitions of success, of course.

> Aren't they also the only successful free software business in history? Are you sure you meant "open source software" not free software?

The software is free, is it not? Red Hat's business model is subscription based.

Re: What makes us Red Hat

#23

Post by tapoxi »

m348e912 wrote: post #4

Red Hat was primary reason it took me a lot longer to adopt Linux than it should have. Headbanging experiences with dependency hell and things not working as expected left me extremely discouraged. It wasn't until I dabbled a little with Solaris 7 and finally found Slackware that I realized that Linux could "just work". IMO Red Hat's success was primarily based on the critical mass of support behind it, not because i…

I agree, but they've certainly come a long way. When I started with Red Hat 6.2, the dependency hell of installing RPMs from random websites and using the (almost never functional) up2date left me with an awful taste in my mouth as I jumped ship to Debian and the "just works" experience of apt-get.

After switching to Fedora because we're using CentOS at work, I've come to like it. DNF and yum are fine replacements for APT. A PPA analog (copr) is just a 'dnf copr enable user/project_name'. 'dnf history' shows every transaction on my system and makes it easy to undo installations.

The only things I don't like on an out-of-the-box Fedora installation are the stupid, touchscreen sized title bars in GNOME 3 and SELinux - which is fortunately easily disabled.

Re: What makes us Red Hat

#25

Post by kbenson »

Panini_Jones wrote: post #21
yeukhon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aren't they also the only successful free software business in history? Are you sure you meant "open source software" not free software?

The software is free, is it not? Red Hat's business model is subscription based.

The software is free. CentOS is a testament to that.

Re: What makes us Red Hat

#26

Post by sandGorgon »

m348e912 wrote: post #4

Red Hat was primary reason it took me a lot longer to adopt Linux than it should have. Headbanging experiences with dependency hell and things not working as expected left me extremely discouraged. It wasn't until I dabbled a little with Solaris 7 and finally found Slackware that I realized that Linux could "just work". IMO Red Hat's success was primarily based on the critical mass of support behind it, not because i…

i think all package managers (not just redhat's) have come a long way since then.

Take a look at the zypper SAT solver (from opensuse) that powers Redhat's DNF package manager today - https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Libzypp_satsolver

The package management of today is a very different beast altogether. And we are on the cusp of the next generation - snap and flatpak.

Re: What makes us Red Hat

#27

Post by digitalshankar »

Red Hat or the Microsoft of Linux is the face palm of linux distros, forget dependency hell, how on earth someone choose rpm over first class Superior Debian package system or distros like Ubuntu? People just buy it for the support even if the Red Hat they use is Gnome 2 and Firefox V.3.0. Then finally RHCA/RHCE courses, i should get certified from this distro to prove my Linux skills for the companies even though i am a debian guy? No Thanks.

Re: What makes us Red Hat

#28

Post by sevensor »

djaychela wrote: post #11
infodroid wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the possibility that your poor experience with Red Hat was due to the fact you were new to Linux? Encountering dependency hell is usually a sign that you don't know what you're doing. Red Hat "just works" and has always enjoyed the reputation of being the most bulletproof distro if you could afford it.

What timeframe are you talking about? I remember it didn't "just work" for me when I first started experimenting with it (V4.2, IIRC). Yes, I was new, but it wasn't the easy-install experience that it now is, for sure.

I started at around the same time -- Red Hat Linux 4 era. Yum didn't exist yet. I was also quite new to Linux, but I'm reasonably sure there really wasn't something that would do dependency resolution for you. You either had to find an RPM that had the right version, or you had to find a tarball somewhere and run configure and make yourself.

Re: What makes us Red Hat

#29

Post by nerdponx »

roymurdock wrote: post #9
rrdharan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're the most successful free software business in history. Aren't they also the only successful free software business in history? Asking seriously, since I am not aware of any other examples. And I suppose it depends on your definitions of success, of course.

Canonical (Ubuntu), and SUSE as well.

RStudio seems successful so far as well.

Re: What makes us Red Hat

#30

Post by Paul-ish »

callahad wrote: post #16
rrdharan wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're the most successful free software business in history. Aren't they also the only successful free software business in history? Asking seriously, since I am not aware of any other examples. And I suppose it depends on your definitions of success, of course.

Firefox, WordPress, Drupal, and Wikipedia may also fit your definition.

GitLab as well, although they are younger.
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