What are the histories of Linux distributions Red Hat and Caldera? 
Why did they go from numerous to few?

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Request for Question Clarification by tisme-ga on 17 Feb 2003 17:59 PST

I would be happy to research the histories of Red Hat and Caldera. I
am confused about "why did they go from numerous to few?" though.
(There are more and more linux distributions coming out all the time.)

tisme-ga

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Clarification of Question by humbugxf-ga on 17 Feb 2003 19:38 PST

The question is meant to be why is the use of Red Hat and Caldera diminishing.

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Request for Question Clarification by joseleon-ga on 20 Feb 2003 00:58 PST

Hello:
  What kind of answer do you want? From an on economic point of view,
or just an opinion based on experience about distros?

Regards.

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Clarification of Question by humbugxf-ga on 20 Feb 2003 07:38 PST

An opinion based on learning the histories of Red Hat and Caldera. 
What are the limits that make them less popular today?  An opinion
based on "experience about distros" sounds like what I need.  Thanks

Hi! You might be interested in the following articles.

http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2871663,00.html

http://www.linux-mag.com/1999-11/redhatipo_03.html

Thanks!

My brief and anecdotal thoughts on this issue are thus:

Both Red Hat and Caldera have fallen behind in two key ares, namely
desktop users and server installation.

For the desktop users, Mandrake has taken the lead as the easiest and
most complete desktop install. It knows it's market very well, and
caters to it exceptionally.

As for servers, neither Red Hat nor Caldera can really compete with
the package management and control structures offered by Debian
GNU/Linux. The advanced package management provided in Debian makes
software management very easy and efficent.

These are just my thoughts...

Regards, 
sycophant-ga