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

On Mon, Sep 08, 2003 at 03:17:18PM -0400, Jay Smith wrote:
> David,
> 
> At no time did I say that I wanted the service for free.  I have been 
> paying for the o/s.  I have been paying for up2date.  I am happy to 
> continue doing so.

But $349 is not reasonable?  $799 is not reasonable?
 
> What I do want is the opportunity to have a product that gives me the 
> opportunity to BUY ongoing security fixes for longer than 12-18 months. 
> And that does not force me to do an o/s upgrade that costs me several 
> thousand dollars in labor just because the company (Red Hat) has made 
> *marketing* decisions that put small companies in a bad spot.

So $349/yr is TOO MUCH to pay to save "several thousand dollars in labor"?  

If you are really spending "several thousand dollars in labor" to upgrade your machines annually then $349, $799 or even $1499 would be a bargin. 

> In my opinion, about a year ago something major changed at Red Hat and 
> their marketing and pricing has started to be based on the depth of the 
> buyer's pockets instead of the utility of the product.  You may say that 
> this is simply "real world" and "they have to stay in business", etc. 
> However, there is more than one way to approach those goals and I get the 
> distinct feeling that Red Hat is not understanding the needs of part of 
> their market.

If Redhat is not supporting a specific market segment then that provides an opportunity for someone else.  Maybe you?  

And maybe its your mistake for trying to use a distribution in a case its not suited for.  Use one copy of Redhat ES for your Oracle database, then run Debian, Gentoo or another non-commercial distribution for your other machines.  Problem solved.  


> The virility of your replies suggests to me either that you work for Red 
> Hat.  Is that the case?  

No, I do not work for Redhat.  Maybe if you read my sig at the end of each email I send.  (suggests to you either I work for Redhat or WHAT?????)

> If not, then from where does the anger and bad language come from?

Its not anger, it annoyance.  And bad langauge?  All I see is some bad spelling and maybe questionable grammer.  

Maybe you should just admit that what annoyed you was your own ignorance.

Dave V.

-- 
David E Vehrs, System Engineer          Aspen Systems
[email protected]                       3900 Youngfield Street
Tel: +01 303 431 4606                   Wheat Ridge CO 80033, USA
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