Forcing a Choice

Linux is about choice. We all know that. You choose one distro, I choose another. You choose vi, I choose emacs. Some like Pepsi, some like Coke, I like Dr. Pepper. And so on.

A while back, I chose to start using Red Hat. I moved to it from SuSE Linux, mostly because I wanted to use Ximian GNOME, and it seemed easier to just shift over to Red Hat, which had better support for Ximian at the time. (Of course, that’s all about to change, isn’t it?)

I grew to like Red Hat, because of Ximian GNOME, because of the Red Hat Network which kept me up-to-date without having to actively seek out security updates, and because of all of those ephemeral things that make for a satisfying experience. When Red Hat 9 came out, I downloaded the Shrike ISOs, burned them, and happily upgraded.

I have quite a bit of work invested into my system, mostly tweaking and tuning to deliver content to Linux Today in an efficient manner. It goes a bit beyond this system, too. Having Red Hat on my main box and Yellow Dog on my laptop made it very easy to mirror files and tools on either system.

This is not about me giving a plug for Red Hat. I like what I like, you like what you like, and we’re all cool. Except now things have changed and I am not sure what the future holds.