Product cycles too short for small businesses (esp. Red Hat)

Red Hat's recent change in their product release cycle strategy has major 
negative implications for a small business such as mine.

A couple years ago I was able to assume (excuse me!) that when a major Red 
Hat linux version was released that I would be able to install it and keep 
using it for 2-4 years.  That I would be able to update it, install 
security patches, and even upgrade it for 2-4 years.

I understood that after a couple years they would no longer backport new 
applications or major upgrades, but I had reason to assume that security 
releases would continue for a reasonable and practical amount of time.

Red Hat has turned that on its head.  They split their product line into 
two major directions:

1) Inexpensive/free product but with short product cycles. This is where 
all the new stuff would be available, etc.  However, within a year or two 
they would no longer be supported, including security fixes would not be 
offered.  The intended user is the casual desktop user, hobbiest, geek, 
guru, etc., etc.; either those who don't use it hard or use it very hard 
and want the latest.

2) Costly product with very long product cycles.  Little or no enhancement; 
it is pretty much locked down. However, security updates and the like would 
be available for a long time.  The intended user is the corporate 
enterprise running big databases (i.e. Oracle and the like).

Well.... I am stuck in the middle.  I am a SMALL company, but I have to run 
a big database (Oracle).  I feel that Linux is not yet ready for true 100% 
desktop use (for us) because we can't yet run all the apps that my company 
needs to run on it. (Thus we run Windows workstation PCs that runs Linux 
apps in XWindows provided by Cygwin.) I desperately need the new features 
that are appearing in the new linux releases so that I can move away from 
Windows toward 100% linux.  However, I also need the long-term stability of 
knowing that I can still get essential security fixes.

The combination of new linux versions always seems to coincide with the 
need to upgrade equipment.  If doing one, it only makes sense to do both -- 
  but we usually would not do only one and not the other.  However, this is 
a big deal in a small company and usually takes one person 6-8 weeks to 
fully build, install, configure, test, and debug the new environment.  That 
is 6-8 weeks full time at $60/hour -- it absolutely kills us.

Part of the problem is that linux seems to lag on drivers for the new 
equipment. Because we can only afford to replace equipment every few years, 
when we do, we try to get at the front of the curve.  However, that means 
that we end up with weeks fighting SCSI RAID drivers that don't work; video 
drivers that conflict with this or that.  This costs real time and real 
money; more than my small organization can justify.  Yet if we buy 1-2 year 
old [new] equipment, by the time we replace it in five years, it is ancient 
technology and the last couple years of its life are spent hoping that it 
has enough horsepower to do the job.

Jay