Programs that break (RH up2date) and require linux guru to get restarted

I am using this particular case as an example of what the "linux packagers" 
seem to think is appropriate behavior on their part.  I am sure that other 
examples could be found; I don't mean to pick on just this one.

Related to this are programs that don't work in some cases, but the "linux 
packagers" won't admit it.

(Note, up2date is a service that I PAY for.)

Red Hat's up2date service is *almost* great and seems well worth the money. 
However, I have had two big problems:

a) In the last couple weeks, the secure certificate for Red Hat's up2date 
program died.  Thus the program ceases to work and new certificates need to 
be installed, etc.  I am a businessperson, not "computer person" but I have 
been running some variant of unix for about 14 years; linux for four years. 
I have a "computer guy" who does the heavy lifting, but he costs me $$$ per 
hour and I can't afford to run to him every time there is some little 
problem.

    In this case, Red Hat sent a notice of the problem and directed users 
to a web page that explained what had to be done.  However, because it is 
the delivery mechanism itself that is broken (of a program that IS a 
delivery mechanism), fixing the problem requires dropping down to the low 
level installing of secure certificates, etc.  I read the information, but 
did not feel confident that I understood what I was to do.  I am going to 
have to get my "computer guy" involved to get it working again.  I feel 
stupid and it is going to cost me a hundred bucks or so.

    This is a situation that a company such as Microsoft (as much as I 
really, really, really do not like MS) would never allow to happen.  The 
"linux packagers" absolutely *must* create products and services that don't 
require a guru every few days.

b) The other issue is that my connection to the Internet is over a 56kb 
modem.  up2date does not like downloading big (originally over 2 MB, now 
over 10 MB) files using such a slow connection.  It virtually always fails. 
  I contacted Red Hat about it and they said that they had *never* heard of 
such a problem.  Yet, according to my "computer guy" there were "lots" of 
posts on the newsgroups about exactly this problem.  Red Hat had no 
solution.  (I was able to manually download the files just fine using third 
party download managers.) Then a few weeks later, Red Hat announced that 
there were some improvements in the up2date program that would improve 
service for people using 56kb modem connections.  AMAZING!  An improvement 
for a problem that did not exist.  Wow!  Well, that raised the ceiling from 
2 MB downloads to 10 MB downloads.  Still the problem continues.

    Please note that this really is a big problem when Red Hat comes out 
with new kernels just about every month and all the files must be manually 
downloaded with a lot of manual messing around.

    Again, this is a service that I *pay* for.

Argh!

Jay