"If they want to avoid confusion"<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... "they should call it 'Red Hat Consumer Linux' (RHCL)"
But calling it Red Hat Consumer Linux implies a couple of things that are untrue:
Use of the Red Hat name implies that Red Hat provides formal support for the release. They changed the name specifically because they did not want to provide any kind of formal support for that release. Keep in mind that they still do provide resources for development and a tonne of unofficial support. Nevertheless, use of a corporate name implies formal support from that corporation.
Use of the term "Consumer" implies that the release is intended for the mass computing populace. Red Hat has gone on the record repeatedly with their belief that Linux is not ready for the mass market computing.
It is vitally important for you to understand that Red Hat does not believe that Linux is unready for technical reasons, but that it is unready for want of political and business infrastructure. (ie: getting drivers for all mass market devices shipped in the box with those devices.) It is unacceptable from a consumer standpoint that a consumer can walk into a retail store, pick any random peripheral device, and not have it work intuitively, out of the box, with Linux. This is not a matter of Linux technology, as it is unreasonable to ask open source developers to reverse engineer every device the instant that device hits the market. It is more a political or business relationship which needs to, but does not currently, exist with device manufacturers.
Like it or not, to have a true "consumer" grade operating system you must have the support of the majority of hardware manufacturers. I am certain that when such relationships exist with the majority of manufacturers, then Red Hat will indeed feel confident in marketing a "consumer" Linux distribution.
As for your complaint about the name Fedora, Red Hat did not "appropriate" the name of the Cornell/UVirginia FEDORA project. Red Hat merged their development with another Linux distribution project that just so happened to have the name Fedora also. If FEDORA the Cornell/UVirginia project had been a Linux distribution, that would be another story, but as they are in a totally unrelated niche of computing, these complaints are assinine. Naming conflicts arise all the time in human languages. Learn to deal with it and quit whining.
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Re:"Fedora" Contributes to Name Confusion
Posted by: lordcorusa on May 07, 2004 02:41 AM"If they want to avoid confusion"<nobr> <wbr></nobr>... "they should call it 'Red Hat Consumer Linux' (RHCL)"
But calling it Red Hat Consumer Linux implies a couple of things that are untrue:
Use of the term "Consumer" implies that the release is intended for the mass computing populace. Red Hat has gone on the record repeatedly with their belief that Linux is not ready for the mass market computing.
It is vitally important for you to understand that Red Hat does not believe that Linux is unready for technical reasons, but that it is unready for want of political and business infrastructure. (ie: getting drivers for all mass market devices shipped in the box with those devices.) It is unacceptable from a consumer standpoint that a consumer can walk into a retail store, pick any random peripheral device, and not have it work intuitively, out of the box, with Linux. This is not a matter of Linux technology, as it is unreasonable to ask open source developers to reverse engineer every device the instant that device hits the market. It is more a political or business relationship which needs to, but does not currently, exist with device manufacturers.
Like it or not, to have a true "consumer" grade operating system you must have the support of the majority of hardware manufacturers. I am certain that when such relationships exist with the majority of manufacturers, then Red Hat will indeed feel confident in marketing a "consumer" Linux distribution.
As for your complaint about the name Fedora, Red Hat did not "appropriate" the name of the Cornell/UVirginia FEDORA project. Red Hat merged their development with another Linux distribution project that just so happened to have the name Fedora also. If FEDORA the Cornell/UVirginia project had been a Linux distribution, that would be another story, but as they are in a totally unrelated niche of computing, these complaints are assinine. Naming conflicts arise all the time in human languages. Learn to deal with it and quit whining.
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