[Am-info] AOL in Negotiations to Buy Red Hat

[Paul Rickard]

========== On 2002.01.20 04:56 PM, Felmon Davis typed: ============

>(a) AOL does servers and broadband. could they offer these services 
>more cheaply to business using Linux (if they don't already)? 

      Owning RedHat wouldn't make it any cheaper. And AOL uses its own 
proprietary server software for hosting, last I heard. 

>(b) They could do whatever without having RedHat but wouldn't they 
>like some brandname recognition and a cute logo?

      Brand names and Logos are always helpful, but how many people in 
the usual AOL target (average technologically semi-literate people with 
small budgets and no time to learn complicated stuff) have heard of 
Linux, much less RedHat Linux? AOL gutted the Netscape brand and attached 
it to their existing Web properties - would they use the RedHat brand to 
identify all their software offerings? RedHat ICQ, RedHat Winamp, RedHat 
Netscape *gag*, RedHat AOL Server? It doesn't make sense either, the 
existing AOL brands are stronger than RedHat's.

      Overall, about the AOL RedHat deal, I'm quite skeptical. Everything 
so far appears to just be rumors, and the deal makes absolutely no sense 
- except for the aspect of Microsoft bribing/paying/agreeing with AOL 
somehow to trade the elimination of a threat for some favor. That is the 
absolute only way it could make any sense or be a realistic thing.

>(c) On a different part of the thread (or thread of the skein?), 
>aside from the licensing of Linux, what are the two or three 
>_technical_ deficiencies(briefly!) it has that make it a poor 
>operating system in some people's minds?

     Technical? I don't know of many technical.. Just an overall 
appearance of it being difficult to use and not having much software 
support. The legal aspects Microsoft brings up continually may also have 
an impact, but they aren't real issues - just FUD.



======== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign =======
--------------------------------[ Http://www.msboycott.com ]-----------

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