"Linux is just Red Hat"

[Karl Hegbloom]

On Wed, 2004-12-15 at 06:36 +0800, Senectus . wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 13:31:34 -0800, Chuck Vose <vosechu at gmail.com> wrote:
> > As annoying as it is, linux is just redhat. Redhat still runs 90% of
> > systems and when you are a company with limited resources you aren't
> > going to put a lot of effort into a niche market of a niche market.
> > 
> > -Chuck
> 
> I'm not sure thats entirely true.. I remember reading somewhere that
> SuSE was more prevalent  than RedHat.. and thats not including the
> "Asian linux" scene..

Debian keeps winning the Linux Journal reader's choice award for best
Linux distro, so from that one could conclude that either there are more
Debian users than users of other distros, or that Debian users are more
savvy than users of other distros.

Red Hat, Suse, and the other commercial Linux distributions have
marketing departments who spend time writing press releases and flooding
the media with propaganda that would have us believe that their version
of Linux is the "real" Linux and that more people use their distro than
any other.  Advertisers believe that if you say something enough times
it either becomes true or that at least every one will believe it's
true.

I suspect that there are a lot more Debian users out there than Red
Hat's marketing department would care to admit.  And Debian users have a
clue.  They tend to be more knowledgeable than Fedora users.  This will
change with Ubuntu.  We will have a larger contingent of newbies to deal
with.  Think of them as understudies -- teach them how to find the
answers on their own, then step out of the way and let them proceed at
their own pace on their own path.

Don't expect them to know enough to RTFM until you point out where to
find the relevant manual, if it exists.  Allow them to explore freely --
don't restrict them to your One True Lesson Plan.  People don't like
deadlines and restrictions on what they are allowed to or supposed to
focus on according to some self appointed guide.