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LinuxWorld: Bruce Perens on UserLinux

LWM: What does UserLinux mean to corporations and
other organizations that will be paying for the software
engineering and using the software?

Perens: Linux vendors like Red Hat really are
not in a position today to be able to support the software they
distribute. If you look inside Red Hat, they have 300 engineers but
only a tiny fraction of those actually support the software.

“UserLinux is taking the approach of ‘let’s have a lot of
support companies working together as equals on UserLinux, so that
you can find the expert that you need, and so that competition
drives quality up and prices down. Let’s encourage service
providers to differentiate themselves by specializing in niche
markets that they know well. I want there to be so many UserLinux
service providers that you’ll be able to find a company that
specializes in supporting dentists in Minnesota. And I don’t want
to own any part of that company–I just want to be its equal
partner in developing the UserLinux system.’ And when you think of
it this way, it turns out to be an approach that is particularly
good for the more technically challenging markets because those are
the markets that a Red Hat or SUSE can’t go to. Red Hat is bound by
strategies that enhance shareholder value, so they have to focus on
the big market…”

Complete
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