RedHat Replacment

[Karl Schmidt]

I've been testing out Distros to replace RedHat - There are three goals 
in this for me.

One -- Stable server software to replace a redhat 7.3/9 software.
Two -- Linux desktops for my kids (They are my test environments for the 
long term plan of total migration to Linux)
Three -- a Distro that is not going to do what Redhat has in the last year.

I think that rules out Suse/Novel, IBM, SUN and leaves me with Mandrake, 
Debian, Gentoo.

My take is that Debian has the best community spirit of support. In the 
end supporting Debian is good for all Linux distros. They are a bit 
behind in their release right now - does anyone know when the next 
release is likely? And will the next release have a text installer?

My target date to move to a new distro is first quarter of '04.

Has anyone transitioned from Redhat to Debian? If so how painful/ any 
pitfalls?

Off topic - about Linux Business models: I think that a 900 number based 
support center could rock - and could support more than one distro. One 
could sell a 900 support package to computer builders where the end user 
would get a pre installed system and if he had trouble you would have 
him (assuming he had internet connectivity up and going) execute a ssh 
port forwarding script so the support center could log on etc (I do this 
for my 80 year-old Linux using father). This is a business that could be 
started small with just 5 guys or so and then scaled up and could be 
quite profitable.

There is no reason that 900 phone calls can't be routed real time to who 
ever is free that day (thanks to R&D of the phone sex industry<g>). A 
shared call history DB and web site would be all that it would take to 
get this off the ground.

My experience with the support business is that if you just care a 
little and are willing to listen to things that sound stupid without 
laughing, people are quite willing to send you piles of money to answer 
questions. People are so used to getting blown off and put down that if 
you just have a phone number that gets answered politely they are 
thrilled. If you go one step past what they expect you get nothing but 
free press.

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Karl Schmidt EMail    Karl at xtronics.com
Transtronics, Inc.    WEB http://xtronics.com
3209 West 9th Street  Ph(785) 841-3089
Lawrence, KS 66049    FAX(785) 841-0434

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
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