Dear FTP Mirror Administrators,

You are about the last group of people who need a lesson on how much 
Linux has changed over the past couple of years.  The wide acceptance for 
individuals, small businesses and corporations have changed our product 
strategy.  We'd like to take the launch of Skipjack as an opportunity to 
give you some information about what we're up to.

In the past we've built all the features we can into one extremely 
versitle version of Red Hat Linux.  The differing needs of individuals and 
corporations have grown significantly.  Our response has been to develop two 
versions of our OS, one for the Enterprise and one for Consumers.

The Consumer version of Red Hat Linux will be the version where new 
features are added.  Skipjack contains the latest version of the kernel, 
KDE, Perl, and Evolution just to name a few.  As time goes on, the 
Consumer version will include more and better configuration tools, easier 
and faster installation, and new applications and features from the 
community and Red Hat Development. 

Red Hat will continue to keep the Consumer version open source with full 
binary and source RPMs and ISO Images available.  In order to keep up with 
the fast community developments, the Consumer version will be updated 
approximately every six months.  

The version of Red Hat Linux for Enterprise deployments will be where 
reiable features are incorporated to run on high-end servers.  
We have heard from CIOs that the latest features aren't what they're 
interested in, they want the features that have been around for several 
months for evaluation and debugging.  The Enterprise version will have 
features that will not be available in the Consumer version.  Including 
clustering and kernel tuning for now.

In true Red Hat style, the Enterprise version will be open source.  Binary 
and source RPMs will be available for you to distribute.  In addition to 
needing proven features, Enteprise customers seek a longer development 
cycle.  Red Hat Linux Enterprise versions will be released on a 12-18 
month interval.

We're confident that having two different versions of Red Hat Linux for 
different customers and deployments will allow us to serve both groups.  
FTP Mirrors are an important part of the equation, we hope that this 
information sheds some light on why Red Hat is sending you two versions of 
the OS.  

Best Regards,

Red Hat Product Management

Bill Mason, Director
Mike Ferris, Red Hat Linux Enterprise
Shelley Bainter, Red Hat Linux Consumer




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