UNIX Review: Review: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

“Since its founding, Red Hat has been locked in a never-ending
quest to answer the question, ‘How do we make money on a product
the customer can obtain elsewhere for free?’ Enterprise Linux 3 is
the latest episode in Red Hat’s quest. And though you will find the
same old Linux inside, this latest offering from the leading Linux
vendor reflects a credible new approach to the market and a steady
commitment to strategic engineering improvements. It looks like
they might be on the right track, but only the market knows for
sure.

“The first thing you will notice when you start to explore the
possibilities of Enterprise Linux 3 is its price. (At least, I hope
that is the first thing you notice, because the price could easily
render further explorations unnecessary.) You won’t find Enterprise
Linux at the old Linux rate of ‘free’ (plus the cost of the
shrink-wrap box). The basic edition starts at $179.00, and the cost
is as high as $18,000 for an enterprise installation on an IBM
S/390. Such pricing may seem impossibly optimistic to the old world
of the Linux counter-culture, but in the new game of corporate
Linux, the premium for reliability is so high that the software
cost just rides along with all the other expenses. Enterprise Linux
marks Red Hat’s realization that they are shifting away from their
low-budget Linux niche and getting closer to their dream of
becoming a premium, service-based system more like Solaris. With
Enterprise Linux 3, they finally cut the cord and leave the old
Linux behind. Red Hat Linux 9 will be the last version of the
legacy OS that has been at the center of the company’s fortunes
since 1994. Red Hat will continue to produce a free-wheeling,
use-at-your-own-risk community-based version of Linux called
Fedora, but the company is clearly staking its future on the
souped-up and exclusive family of Enterprise Linux systems…”

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