Affordable, supported Linux (Score 2, Interesting)

We've been doing KRUD Linux (http://www.tummy.com/krud ) and KRUDserver Linux (http://www.tummy.com/krudserver ) for around 5 years now. KRUD is a Red Hat tracking distribution (Red Hat plus extra packages), which is currently available in versions 7.3, 8.0 and 9 on CD.

Over the last 6 months, I've noticed a declining interest in KRUD, which I attribute to several factors (low cost bandwidth due to broadband reducing the demand for CD distributions, more commercial distro users moving to more expensive Red Hat versions, and others). Interestingly, this has come at a time when many people have stated an interest in continued support of older Red Hat distributions because of the new Red Hat End Of Life announcements.

We'd like to be able to continue to do KRUD, and are exploring electronic distribution options, and broadening our offerings.

I think that KRUD provides a valuable service, both in providing an easy, secure, complete, up-to-date distribution, and in providing an alternative to Red Hat's soon to be discontinued 'hobbiest' versions.

Right now, we're evaluating providing support for 7.3 and 8.0 after Red Hat's End of Life in December. It's going to take us close to a full time engineer to do the updates, I estimate. So far, I've had only about 10 requests to provide End of Life support, which is not even close to being able to cover the costs to produce. The price would drop to a more reasonable level if more people order it.

It's interesting that many people are expressing interest for longer support for older Red Hat releases, but few seem to find any value in it.

If you're interested in pre-ordering, please feel free to contact me.