Redhat 9.0 coming out April 7th

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Mon, 24 Mar 2003, at 4:10pm, travis at scootz.net wrote:
> Their "BlueCurve" thing didn't go over to well..

  As far as I have been able to determine, 99% of people really didn't care
about BlueCurve.  It's a bloody UI theme, for crying out loud.  All the
noise came from a small but vocal fringe element, and would have been
completely ignored if it wasn't for sites like Slashdot and Linux Today
posting headlines about it every three seconds.

> Plus it can't play or encode MP3s out of the box..

  That is a patent issue.  The MP3 algorithm is patented; owned by Thomson
Multimedia.  They recently "clarified" their stance on MP3 licensing, which
served to remind everyone of the patented status.  Yes, there is that
infamous statement on their website about "non-commercial activities".  
That statement is legally ambiguous for an outfit like Red Hat.  Of course,
technically speaking, Red Hat has been in violation of their patents for
years, but Red Hat took action with 8.0.  Unless the situation with
Thomson is resolved, I would not expect MP3 to show up in RHL again.

  (Insert snide remark about Red Hat's history of selective license
compliance here.)

> 8.0 is also EXTREAMLY bloated.

  That is a subjective opinion.  Given that SuSE (Red Hat's biggest Linux
competitor) is at 7 or 8 CDs now, I would expect Red Hat Linux will only get
larger.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
| The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do  |
| not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. |
| All information is provided without warranty of any kind.              |