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: Doug B. who wrote (641)	8/17/1999 9:13:00 AM
From: guerillero.de	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

"If Dell preloads Red Hat on machines, they will have to ensure that Red Hat supports all aspects of the hardware on the machines BEFORE they go on the market, which means that they will have to pay Red Hat to develop the software." Well, it depends. First of all, I am not sure whether Red Hat really wants to put up with the hassle to develop some special driver for some special hardware. But more important: if Dell wants to sell a preconfigured LINUX machine, it would be the easiest to build this machine from components which are already supported by LINUX. This could be a requirement when they select the component vendor. "... Dell. They are not an OS development company." Neither is Red Hat. LINUX is not developed by Red Hat. They bundle it and support it, and perhaps develop some tools for easier configuration, but they are NOT developing the OS. IMHO, it is just a matter of volume whether it makes sense for a PC manufacturer to build up LINUX skills. I agree with you that it is likely that Dell currently does not want to be involved in OS support, but what if it becomes profitable to do so? I see the major challenge and the major value added by companies like Red Hat or SuSe in providing a bundle of LINUX which is highly likely to run on a broad variety of machines (support for all kind of different components). If you have a well-defined set of components (because you assemble the PC), this added value becomes less important. You just need a LINUX configuration which suits your hardware. I am confident that this could be done by a very limited number of people (2-3). Best regards, g.

To: Doug B. who wrote (641)	8/17/1999 11:50:00 AM
From: JP Sullivan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

You raise some valid points. I've installed 5.2 on a development machine running NT Server and been playing around with some GUIs from KDE. Very nice. I'm thinking of upgrading to v6.0 and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I can pick up the CD for $1.99 plus shipping, compared to the $80++ I had to pay for v5.2! This appears to be the official Red Hat version with documentation on the CD. If you want the version with the printed manual & CD, it'll cost $27. So, in fact you'd need to spend significantly less than an hour's salary to obtain Linux on media. Whether or not DELL and any other manufacturer sticks with Red Hat ultimately depends on economics, IMO. I think there might come a point where DELL is paying enough $$$ to Red Hat for someone to question whether it's economically viable to take the operations in-house. Or switch suppliers. All this points to the tenuous nature of Red Hat's relationship with DELL or any other box manufacturer, for that matter. Unlike Windows (its warts and ugliness notwithstanding), Linux can theoretically be supplied by just about anyone. I wonder how many Linux suppliers out there are capable of stepping into Red Hat's shoes for less. Good talking with you. Winston