Shibboleth Developers

["Mark Wilcox" <>]

Essentially the Linux market is maturing  -- essentially you have 2
enterprise Linux offerings (by enterprise I mean distributions that were
primarily designed to run multi-CPU, large amounts of RAM & server
processes) -- Red Hat Enterprise & SUSE (which is now being acquired by
Novell).

As Ryan pointed out, Red Hat has moved out of the retail desktop market,
most likely due to it's not that profitable for them. 

However, from a server standpoint, there is a sizable market that will pay
for support -- support not just in the form of "hey I can call XYZ at 3am &
get a response" but also in stable kernel, libraries and related pieces that
go into an OS.

WebCT is moving to supporting only the Red Hat Enterprise line (we've
investigated SUSE as well, but haven't made any decisions on that) because
that's the only offering Red Hat will support as a server. While Linux
should be Linux, the fact is that with the variety of Kernels & libraries &
utilities out there, it's very easy to mess up the works. Thus if you want
to provide consistent support for a product, you have to limit your range of
options. 

And even so, it's not always smooth sailing with Linux. I've seen a 'patch'
that upgraded glibc, then caused Apache to randomly stop printing out web
pages.

Very hard one to debug ;).

Of course Windows contracts viruses like kids in a day care & Solaris has
performance issues.

So it's always pick your poison :).

Mark
 





-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Atkins 
[mailto:]
 
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 11:30 AM
To: 

Cc: 

Subject: Re: the future of Red Hat...?

It's unclear.  There is still the "Fedora" releases, but again it's
unclear what that will mean.  MIT is still evaluating its options and
hasn't chosen a path.  I don't know what our clients plan to do.

Red Hat has a significant market share; it's hard to say what that
share will do, or if Fedora will be sufficient.  I think it's
premature for us to consider alternatives until we see where the
market is heading.

-derek


 writes:

> I saw  this reposted to one of the campus lists... the poster claims
> that "The Enterprise version with good web capabilities apparently
> starts at around $350"........
>
> is this true? and does this mean that some number of people will be
> migrating to some  other version of linux (eg debian)?
>
> Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2003 10:27:51 -0500
> Message-Id: 
> <>
> To: 
> 
> From: Red Hat Network 
> <>
> Subject: Red Hat Linux end-of-life update and transition planning
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> Errors-To: 
> 
>
> Dear yfederow,
>
> Thank you for being a Red Hat Network customer.
>
> This e-mail provides you with important information about the upcoming
> discontinuation of Red Hat Linux, and resources to assist you with your
> migration to another Red Hat solution.
>
> As previously communicated, Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and
> errata support for Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 8.0 as of December
> 31, 2003. Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and errata support for
> Red Hat Linux 9 as of April 30, 2004. Red Hat does not plan to release
> another product in the Red Hat Linux line.
>
> With the recent announcement of Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.3, you'll
> find migrating to Enterprise Linux appealing.  We understand
> that transitioning to another Red Hat solution requires careful planning
> and implementation.  We have created a migration plan for Red Hat Network
> customers to help make the transition as simple and seamless as
> possible. Details:
>
> ****************
> If you purchase Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS or ES Basic before February
> 28, 2004, you will receive 50% off the price for two years.[*] (That's two
> years for the price of one.)
>
> ****************
> In addition, we have created a Red Hat Linux Migration Resource Center
> to address your migration planning and other questions, such as:
>
> * What are best practices for implementing the migration to Red Hat
>    Enterprise Linux?
>
> * Are there other migration alternatives?
>
> * How do I purchase Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS or ES Basic at the price
>    above?
>
> * What if my paid subscription to RHN extends past April 30, 2004?
>
> ****************
>
> Find out more about your migration options with product comparisons,
> whitepapers and documentation at the Red Hat Linux Migration Resource
> Center:
>
>    http://www.redhat.com/solutions/migration/rhl/rhn
>
>
> Or read the FAQ written especially for Red Hat Network customers:
>
>    https://rhn.redhat.com/help/rhlmigrationfaq/
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Red Hat, Inc.
>
>
> [*] Limit 10 units. Higher volume purchase inquiries should contact a
>      regional Red Hat sales representative. Contact numbers available at
>      http://www.redhat.com/solutions/migration/rhl/rhn
>
> --the Red Hat Network Team
>
>
>

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       

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