Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Red Hat Software Inc. (Nasdq-RHAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Matthew Wecksell who wrote (140)	7/20/1999 4:41:00 PM
From: Lee Nelson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

OK, this email probably seems like the exact opposite of my last one. Bear with me as I attempt to sort out my thoughts about this company. ;-) Support is nice; that's the reason I bought a VA Linux server, instead of some random X86 box. I know that if I happen to be really busy, I can just pick up the phone and ask VA what to do. That's a nice feeling, even though I am competent to fix most things. And it saves my client money when they don't have to pay consulting rates for stupid problems. Actually, that's also the reason I paid $80 for a RH boxed set for home use; I don't have time to get bogged down in say, video card configuration. RH's "installation only" phone support was actually very helpful, even providing a few "configuration" details. Matthew you are certainly correct about the availability of support as a great selling point for getting Linux in the door. Will most companies purchase said support? My personal experiences with the low- to mid-level support offerings from Microsoft have left me wary of the whole thing: long hold times, ignorant "first-line" reps who try to look up your problem in a database, and overly strict interpretations of the "per-incident" clause are the norm. I hope RedHat can manage to provide decent service to all paying comers and still make a healthy profit. I had actually decided to give SuSE Linux a try, but I dumped them when tech support emails went un-answered for 3 WEEKS. Another thing that will work to RH's advantage is familiarity. I recommend RH to clients partially because I know it's decent, and partially because I already know its quirks. There portal strategy seems like a crock though. Over the last several months, their website has been frequently broken in the e-commerce dept, and lacking in basic technical details about their products. Mostly though, it seems to lack focus and immediacy. I hope that as they pull together their web team, all this will get sorted out. -Lee

To: Matthew Wecksell who wrote (140)	7/20/1999 5:30:00 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

No offense taken, but Linux cannot fail or succeed. Linux usage will continue to grow as a percentage of total machines that are disinfected of the various borg viruses. Will Redhat succeed in generating enuff revenue to support a X dollars a share for 66 millions shares is a question. Will I succeed in becoming a millionaire by investing in Linux companies ? Well I sure hope so. For my part when I recommend linux and some objects and suggests using a borg virus, I simply shoot them and then no one objects to my Linux solution. (Gates Rage is a legitimate defense. It's called the blue scream of death defense.) I believe I am responsible for having Linuxicilian totally eradicate borg viri on several hundred machines. Tom Watson tosiwmee

To: Matthew Wecksell who wrote (140)	7/20/1999 5:57:00 PM
From: Jerry Whlan	Respond to of 1794

"There is this $1 Billion company out there that can give you a support contract for a product that I'm already intimately familiar with, that never crashes in a server environment, and that has this thing called Samba that'll let the end users not have to know that we've changed the back end servers." How about a $40 Billion company? hp.com HP's support organization is very well regarded in the industry (as much as any support services can be I guess). Redhat has panache, but HP has longevity and a rock solid reputation.

To: Matthew Wecksell who wrote (140)	7/26/1999 2:17:00 AM
From: Norman Stone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

All of this geekspeak is amusing, but the fact is that Linux will not gobble marketshare until it brings in the non-geeks. The Gates gamble is that a company will squander seconds of processor time, gigs of storage and acres of documentation-eyeshare, all for the benefit of owning a commerce-ware solution that enables the non-IT hemisphere of a company to participate in its design. It is not enough for IT to know what is feasible. It must be able to model its capabilities for the non-IT sector, and that is what the Microsoft model is aiming for: the 'highest level' dialogue of technical feasibility that the non-IT sector can handle, even if it means notching down feasibility itself. Whether or not his aim is true, Gates' target is correct. Our techneconomy has always needed glue between industry and IT, and Gates has decided to use up cyberspeed and cybercapacity in the production of that glue. The geek-to-geek market will always be a Sunday morning swap meet. If Red Hat is going to bring something to the big party, it will be consulting, support, and alternatives to the IIS/DCOM/'server-Lego' model of Microsoft. Speed and compactness are easy, but whoever brings "thinkability' to the Linux/Unix commerce-ware possibilities will be the true winner. Norman Stone