RedHat I bid thee adieu

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 21:02:56 +0000

I’m tired enough of redhat that it’s time to explore other options. I’ve been having yum issues for years now(yum is the program you use to patch RedHat) and it’s finally time to just look to another OS. Asking for $180 a year for updates to an operating system is just unrealistic. All of this for a silly little box that is running a Pentium 2 processor. The box is literally worth $5. But I’m going to pay $180 a year to run software on it? I generally don’t like variable pricing, that is to say like what Oracle does but in this case it would make more sense. If you’re running a single processor ancient box, $25 for updates. If you’re running a 16 processor box that can compute a googl, that will be $1000 for updates. What’s a little silly is that this is an increase from the old prices. They used to beg for $100 a year but give you the updates for free if you wouldn’t donate. I hate to go back to Windows, but at least Microshaft understands that I don’t want to license my OS. Actually, I’ve read that Microsoft explored the idea and realized it wasn’t feasible, probably due to the strong competition by Google.

OK, so if you’re a non-geek and still here I’ll attempt an allegory. Imagine that instead of buying the transmission to your car you instead decided to lease it. You own the car and you get to design the cockpit…but you have to pay an annual fee(FOREVER) just in order to get the thing to move. It’s just an absurd idea initially. Then when you price it improperly there’s no reason to bother with it all. Imagine if they asked you to give them $3000 a year for your transmission, in addition to your usual car loan payment.

So anyhow, this begins my foray into freeBSD. Never had a reason to not like it…it’s just that fedora and redhat were always so cheap and accessible. Time for a change.

it’s unix, not eunuchs » freeBSD

RedHat I bid thee adieu