Re: [OS:N:] Re: K12 and Red Hat

["Michael Williams" <mwilliams haywood k12 nc us>]

RedHat is not the only company we deal with that does not accept small
purchase orders. We have a system credit card to use for one time purchases
and such that comes in handy for just these occasions.

As a company, I think they deserve to be cut some slack in certain circles,
braking new ground is always tough as sometimes you're left feeling your way
through the dark. If it were not for their presence Linux would not have
advanced as far or made as many inroads as it currently has. They have
advanced Linux by lending credability and stability to a worthy grassroots
philosophy and I admire them for it.

Michael

>>Hi all,
>>I don't know if this is an appropriate place to post
>>this rant but I want to make sure Red Hat hears it as
>>I am incredibly frustrated with them and they sponsor
>>this list.
>>As a company, what are peoples' experiences dealing
>>with Red Hat?  I am seriously considering moving away
>>from Red Hat because I find them so difficult to deal
>>with. As a distribution I really like it and know it
>>better than any of the others.I think the features of
>>Res Hat network are very nice but when you try to
>>purchase anything from Red Hat as an educational
>>institution, they are incredibly unfriendly. In order
>>to use a PO you must be buying at least $2000.00 worth
>>of stuff. I deal with a lot of vendors and virtually
>>all of them take school PO's without a problem no
>>matter what the amount is. I run a few Linux servers;
>>all but one on Red Hat and want to purchase Red Hat
>>Network for them. They are making me jump through many
>>hoops to get it since I am not buying $2000.00 worth.
>>I am considering moving my servers to another
>>distribution such as Debian. The updates you get
>>through Apt-get are free and I don't have to fool
>>around with a company that doesn't want to give me the
>>time of day because I am not an 800 pound gorilla that
>>is going to spend big bucks in one fell swoop. Red Hat
>>has an opportunity to make real inroads into
>>government and education and to take the posture they
>>have seems quite ridiculous. It is a deterrent to
>>schools and small municipalities. I am one of the only
>>K12 open source advocates in my small state but there
>>is a lot of interest in open source. I get queried by
>>colleagues frequently on how to transition to Linux
>>and open source apps. I find Red Hat pays a lot of lip
>>service to doing things for education but their basic
>>purchasing policy is anything but friendly. As my
>>colleagues ask me for recommendations, I think I am
>>going to start talking up other distros despite the
>>fact that Red hat has one of the best organized
>>support systems in the Linux world as they are so
>>unfriendly to the little guys. What are other folks
>>thoughts/experinces?
>>Dave
>>
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--
Michael Williams                   Instructional Technology
Haywood County Schools          216 Charles St. Clyde, NC 28721
http://www.k12linux.org                 (828) 627-8314