Re: [Fsfe-uk] Bruce Prerens' ideas for a 'UserLinux' non-corporate distro

[Tom Coady]

Paul Mobbs said the following on 07/12/2003 10:46:

> **The Problem**
>
> This has hampered the adoption of Linux. For example, a very large 
> multinational bank recently informed me that they had called off a 
> 10,000-system Linux deployment becuase "Linux is now more expensive than 
> Windows". 
More details please. Was cost the only criteria? I imagine a bank would 
value other qualities.

> An ISP complained that the cost of Enterprise Linux is greater than 
> the annual profit of one of his servers.
>  
RHEL Cost=$349. What type of business makes <$1 profit/day?

> But the $1000 per year or greater that 
> many customers now pay for their Linux systems goes not for service, but for 
> a brand and the endorsement of a few application providers like Oracle.
>  
$799 actually. And it gives plenty of support:
http://www.redhat.com/apps/commerce/rhel/es/

> The economics of Open Source work worst for commercial Linux distributions. 
> They are attempting to generate profit from a product that they don't own, 
> and to which they can't add much value without departing from the factors 
> that make Linux desirable.

I think the support element is quite good value actually.