[KLUG Members] Re: My suggestion on organizing binary CDs for x86 chip-specific optimizations

[Bruce Smith]

> > You're correct.  I honestly believe that Redhat doesn't care about the
> > money from CD sales of their base distribution.  Why else would they put
> > ISO images of new releases on their ftp site days before you can order
> > the product?  They have to be focusing on income from support and
> > enterprise products.
> 
> You are correct!  And, at the same time, RedHat is a GPL-anal company. 
> This means that anything they find themselves doing for
> support/enterprise customers, they usually add to the general
> distribution.  Such is the case with all the new and different
> pre-compiled kernels you see in the latest distros.  Such will be the
> case with x86-64.
> 
> So I'm trying to suggest a new path to accomodate these better _before_
> CD #1 becomes little more than the installer and just kernel RPMs.  ;-P

Good luck!  It would be nice if Redhat did that.

If redhat comes out with more CD's for more CPU's, I'll download them,
use them, sell them at KLUG and even keep a couple updated as BSware. 
However anyone running a 386/486 is going to be out of luck for BSware
CDs!  These days you can buy a P5/P6 system cheaper than the list price
for the Redhat packaged box set!  :-)

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Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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