I like that this was updated.

"Jet 8:44:9 01/22/2002
AOL looks to buy out Red Hat

Ummm... Does anyone else see something wrong with this situation? AOL/Time Warner looking to buy out Red Hat (a.k.a. all that is evil in the worl looking to buy out all that is good in the world)? WTF? How is it that a company that its bread and butter is based off of stupid ass customers that can't figure the internet out, much less their damn computers, figure that it would be a good thing to switch over to a operating system that is in no way shape or form aimed at those type of customers? I mean come on people, AOL. These are the people that call up tech support claiming that their "H" key got hacked because every time they press the "H" key, the "G" key also appears (ummmm. can you say FAT FINGERS?). So why is it that a company that makes millions hand over fist on internet access alone think that its a good idea to buy out a company that DOESNT CHARGE A DIME FOR ITS OS? They are going to turn around and rename it to something like AOL/Time Warner/Red Hat, take away netscape and force wxindows users to use AOL/Time Warner/Red Hat AOL version 8.0 with a free 10,000,000 E14 hours, then to boot, they are going to try and charge $149.99 for the OS."

AOL gives you 1000 free hours! Oh, boy!
Ever notice that you're required to do that in a month? How? Even the longest months have only 744 hours... February has 672 in normal years and 696 in leap years. What are we supposed to do, use multiple computers on multiple phone lines?

<b>If</b> this deal does go through, they will probably use redhat to make Emachines and the like, before they run the company into the ground. If you think about it, it shouldn't be able to really give linux a bad name, and we may be able to buy cheap-as-shit linux systems(remember the late netappliance?). Over-all linux is supperior to *BSD only for desktop usehardware compatibility/games). If I had the hours to configure my servers, they would all run OpenBSD(after I fixed the MySQL bug). On the other hand, they may use this as an oppurtunity to bundle AOL and it's user-crippling interface with linux. Imagine your server being punted! If this goes through I, for one, will stay with Mandrake.

Actually, AOL (or really any other ISP for that matter) never expects you to use the amount of time they give you, 500 or 1000 hours. It's just to get people to say, "Oh wow! That's a great deal! I'll try it!" and then when they go .001 seconds over one month without canceling because it takes AOL like 3 days to actually cancel the free stuff they charge you for a month. Beleive me, I have experienced it.

Someone up here at Michigan Tech told me you actually get 45 days now to use the 1000 hours. Damn. I thought I had them caught in a mathematical paradox.

it still isnt a good deal. 1000hrs/45day is roughly 23hrs a day.

Did any1 notice that AOL is the most expensive?
Every1 go 2 AOL, cuz I need cash!

When I read your comment I had to do a bit of research. I could only breath a huge sigh of relief when I found this entitled "AOL quashes Red Hat purchase rumors". Click "Web Page" above.

Thank God, if AOL did buy Red Hat (although the decision is mostly Red Hat's, so hopefully they would be intelligent enough not to sell), ugh, I shudder to think...

Offtopic, but...

You are incorrect. The decision is not Red Hat's to make. Red Hat, being a publically traded company, is under obligation to it's stock holders. If offered a significant amount of money, they would be required to take it. To do otherwise would be negligence, and a company can be sued by it's stock holders for being negligent. Remember, the rules are much different for public companies.

Personally, I think AOL buying Red Hat would be a good thing. We might finally start seeing PC's sold at places like Best Buy that are running something other than Windows. Be didn't have a chance with BeOS, but AOL would. And it would give Linux more corporate backing and public visibility, which would be good.

I'm sorry, but I think that if AOL bought Red Hat, we'd end up buying Linux computers that forced you to pay $23.95 a month for shitty internet access.

No.

RedHat is NOT Linux. RedHat is a distributer of Linux.

I know that. I never said they were.
My post was responding to his comment about AOL making AOL/Red Hat Linux machines. I meant that if we were to buy such a machine, they'd end up forcing us (somehow, they're evil) to us AOL's sucky expensive service.

Ok, just checking :).

Someone on DSLR was griping about how Linux would never be the same again...someone corrected him.

DSLR?

www.dslreports.com

Oh.

True, I didn't think they were public. The decision in this case would lie with the stockholders. Anyway, think about what AOL has done to other great software it has bought in the past. That is not a good thing.

Actually, at www.redhat.com, Red Hat Linux 7.2 is $59.95 and Red Hat Linux 7.2 Pro is $199.95. The linux kernel is free - however, it does not have a GUI, so even if AOL were to buy Red Hat, Red Hat is just linux GUI. Fortunately there are and will be others.

Um... you're a little mistaken, my friend.
Those programs ONLY cost money if you want a physical CD and tech support. You can download *any* version of Red Hat Linux off of their servers for free... but they're usually 600-700MB ISO files. That's the only downside. If you can wait or have a fast enough connection, go for it (like I did).

Many of the packaged distributions also inclued commercial programs. I believe that Corel Linux included at least part of their office suite, and probably some other programs as well. Corel had a really great thing going. It's too bad [that I didn't buy any of their stock after the beta was announced on Slashdot, and it trippled in the next couple of months, as I predicted].

The first (and only) Linux I bought was RedHat 7.0. I got 4 printed CDs plus a patch, lots of papers about registering on their site, a little book explaining how to install it, and a couple hours of tech support. I should have downloaded it.

Hey, I did say at redat.com. I meant to purchase it.

Like I said, you can DOWNLOAD it for free off Red Hat's servers. It is a FREE OS.

ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub /redhat/linux/7.2/en/iso/i386/

The OS:
enigma-i386-disc1.iso (646MB)
enigma-i386-disc2.iso (638MB)
The Add-ons:
enigma-SRPMS-disc1.iso (648MB)
enigma-SRPMS-disc2.iso (517 MB)

They're all there. I wouldn' recommend actually buying it. It's not worth it.

Don't download it from RedHat themselves. It takes forever. Find a mirror with less users logged in.

I distinctly remember reading something along the lines of "keep comment topics relevant to the article you are replying to"...

*eats Jimmy Qian* There, that takes care of that. ;=)

AWw0000ooo0oOO000oooOOOoo0!

WTF?!?

what's with that aw0o thing?

I do too!