Red Hat has set the standard for world class software support, consistently earning top marks with CIOs for its efforts. On Thursday, however, Red Hat outdid itself, introducing a new product support plan called Extended Update Support. In a nutshell, Extended Update Support enables customers to run their mission-critical systems for longer stretches of time without having to take production systems offline to update them.
From the announcement:
Extended Update Support allows a customer with a large mission-critical deployment to reduce server administration and management costs by standardizing on a single update release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for up to 18 months--all while preserving stability and data security.
As Red Hat explains, most software companies allow customers to standardize on a minor, "point" release for 6 to 9 months, or at most 12 months. Through its Extended Update Support program, however, Red Hat is letting customers pick a Red Hat Enterprise Linux build and stick with it for up to 18 months, up to three times the industry average. That means less downtime and less need to re-validate software stacks running on RHEL.
The Register provides some additional insight:
While Red Hat commits seven years of support for a major RHEL version, the dot releases within the versions change about every six months. Within those dot releases, the company ensures application compatibility because it doesn't change the runtime environment, the area where the Linux kernel interacts with applications. So even if there are patches for security or bugs and whatnot in the dot release, customers do not have to go through application testing and certification, which can take many months, as long as they stay within a RHEL version.
This is a great service to Red Hat's customers, and provides further evidence that Red Hat's subscription model helps it to be more attuned to customer needs. Red Hat isn't selling an upfront license: it's selling the continued value of an ongoing subscription. By tuning that value to actual customer needs--in this case, the need to disturb production systems as little as possible to reduce risk and save money--Red Hat ensures renewals.
Subscription models align vendor interests with customer interests. Red Hat's Extended Update Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is setting the pace. It will be interesting to see who follows.
Despite the fact that competing DVRs from cable and satellite companies have made great headway in the past few years, we're still fans of TiVo's intuitive interface and constantly improving feature set. However, the knock against TiVo is that it's expensive--you have to buy the box and pay a $13 monthly fee, while a DVR from your cable company usually costs less than $10 a month with no up-front cost.
As of late, TiVo has been offering a lifetime subscription plan as a promotion that was slated to end in February, but the eagle-eyed TiVo fans over at Gizmo Lovers noticed that the offer has been extended to July 2, and Dave Zatz writes that he's received word that the lifetime subscription deal is here to stay. The lifetime subscription plan costs $400, plus the cost of the TiVo box itself.
The real question is whether the lifetime plan is a good deal. The key thing to remember is that TiVo's lifetime subscription plans are for the lifetime of the box, so if your TiVo dies or you want to upgrade to a new model, your lifetime subscription is tied to the device. (In some cases, TiVo has allowed customers to transfer their lifetime subscriptions for an additional fee.)
Acting as a new subscriber, we were able to get a TiVo HD plus a lifetime subscription for $700, and a TiVo HD plus a three-year subscription for $600 from the TiVo Web site. So unless you plan on using your TiVo HD box for more than three years you're probably better off skipping the lifetime subscription plan.
With switched digital video on the horizon and the possibility that TiVo will release a newer, SDV-compatible (without the dongle) DVR in the future, chances are you might feel some upgrade-itis around the three-year mark and won't want to feel obligated to stick to your old TiVo box. Still, the lifetime plan seems to be popular with TiVo fans and it's only giving buyers another option, so it's good news for TiVo lovers who want to lock into their service.
Hotels tack extra charges onto your bill when you raid the minibar--or if they're really mean, when you steal towels. If a new Warner Music Group executive gets his way, your Internet service provider will be billing you each month for music downloads.
Jim Griffin, Warner's latest top-shelf hire and the former head of Geffen Music, told Portfolio.com the details of a radical new strategy to deal with the record industry's 21st-century crisis. According to Griffin's plan, to which he said Warner Music is "totally committed," a monthly fee added to an Internet service bill--say, five bucks--could give consumers unlimited access to music that they could download, copy, and share.
He estimated that this could provide as much $20 billion per year to reimburse artists and copyright holders.
Griffin did not make it clear whether this would be an opt-in service, or whether customers of an Internet service provider would ideally all be charged even if they don't plan to download music. But, he said, he hopes that it would be much bigger than Warner, with the project eventually spun into its own company.
Recent weeks have seen a number of media and technology companies toying with the idea of unlimited-access plans as they grapple with the reality that iTunes and its ilk haven't stopped rampant music piracy. And legal efforts to curtail pirated downloads often proceed at a snail's pace--it took nearly two years and immense legal pressure before BitTorrent finally shut down the TorrentSpy search engine earlier this week.
Looks as if the battle for elbow room in the music subscription market could get a tiny bit tougher if Sony BMG Entertainment follows through on plans to offer its digital catalog to subscribers.
In a story published Monday, the company's CEO, Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that Sony BMG is working on a subscription service that would in many ways resemble the one contemplated by Apple, which reportedly has been discussing such a service with the four major music labels.
The basics of the proposed Sony BMG plan would include unlimited access to the label's digital library for a flat monthly fee of $9 to $12, and compatibility with all music players, including Apple's iPod, Schmidt-Holtz said, adding that it was possible subscribers "could keep some songs indefinitely--that they would own them even after the subscription expired." Another possible feature of the service: downloads via mobile phone.
No word, though, on when the service might be launched.
Click me to check out the new Napster interface.
Other than its first reported quarter of positive cash flow, Napster has enjoyed a relatively unremarkable year--at least on the surface. It is now apparent, however, that plenty of tinkering has been going on in the background.
The company on Tuesday announced a fairly significant redesign to its music service and software. The new Napster, version 4, is lighter and a bit simpler--and it definitely appears to take some cues from RealNetworks' Rhapsody.
Of particular note are the launch of a Web-based version of the service, which will enable Mac and Linux users to join in the fun, and the addition of the Automix feature, a new music discovery tool.
I could go on to list all the details in long and boring fashion, but a picture (actually, 22 pictures) is worth a thousand words--wouldn't you agree? Check out our slide show for an up-close and personal look at Napster 4.0.
Rhapsody's subscription music service is now available on TiVo's DVRs.
(Credit: TiVo)Add Rhapsody to TiVo's bag of broadband media tricks. Real Networks' music subscription service is available as of today to users of TiVo's standalone Series2 and Series3 DVRs. The integration makes good on an announcement by the two companies back at January's Consumer Electronics Show. Rhapsody joins a host of other broadband offerings on TiVo's DVRs, including Amazon Unbox videos, Live 365 streaming radio, podcast downloads, Yahoo photos/traffic/weather, and customized TiVoCast video downloads. (Note: CNET is a content provider for TiVoCast.)
Existing Rhapsody subscribers should have no trouble getting access to their music collection, which can include anything from customized streaming Internet radio stations to personalized playlists drawn from the millions of tracks available on Rhapsody's service. The service costs $13 a month--above and beyond TiVo's monthly fee--but it can also be accessed on other devices, such as any networked PC, the Sonos Digital Music System, or the Logitech Squeezebox. Upgrade to the Rhapsody To Go plan (an additional $2 per month), and you can transfer songs--from a PC, not the TiVo--to compatible portable players such as the SanDisk Sansa e200R series for listening outside the home.
While the availability of Rhapsody is another nice arrow in TiVo's media quiver, in and of itself, it's probably not the sort of make-or-break feature that's going to boost sales of the DVR. On the other hand, existing and prospective Series3 and TiVo HD owners will be happy to know that TiVo has confirmed that the Multi-Room Viewing (transfer recorded shows to other TiVo DVRs in the home) and TiVo To Go (transfer recorded shows to networked PCs and portable media devices) features are scheduled to be added to those high-def models next month. To date, both features have been limited to standard-def Series2 models only.
A final note for TiVo owners: The Rhapsody service is available on the DVR for a 30-day free trial, so you can try before you subscribe. In order to gain access to the Rhapsody function, you'll need the latest 9.1 software update. If you don't already have it, head over to TiVo's Web site to prioritize the upgrade.
The New York Times has finally given up on the Web-subscription model, announcing Monday that the newspaper's online site will no longer charge for any content.
The decision comes two years after The Times began charging $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for Internet access to premium content, such as pieces by columnists and archived stories, according to a story that appeared in the paper.
The Times said that the subscription service met targets, acquiring 227,000 paying subscribers and generating $10 million a year.
Executives at the newspaper seemed to suggest in The Times' story that the reason for scratching the paid service is that the company's projections for subscriber revenue were small compared with advertising sales.
With the Times opting out of paid subscriptions, it is believed that there are no other large general news providers offering a subscription Web service. The Wall Street Journal is the only major newspaper in the country still charging for content, and parent company Dow Jones is studying whether to drop its subscription service as well.
In what might be a boon to researchers, historians and librarians, The Times also announced that the newspaper is making available online the paper's archived stories from 1987 to the present. In addition, the company is also planning to make available stories from the years 1851 to 1922.
Wednesday's Apple announcements included some significant market advances, particularly the iPod Touch and the iTunes Wi-Fi Store. The new lineup of devices should keep the company clearly in the digital-media drivers' seat through the end of 2007, at least, and the pricing strategy is rock-solid. (Microsoft tried to pre-empt Apple's announcement with a $50 price cut on the 30GB Zune to $199, but with an 80GB iPod available for only $249, Microsoft's going to have to cut the price further.)
Even so, a few things that Apple didn't announce might leave some room for other innovators.
Subscription store. Maybe Steve Jobs is right, and consumers don't want to rent their music. I can understand why it's not particularly attractive on a PC-tethered store, especially if the user experience is poor. But with a Wi-Fi store--assuming it actually works the way it's supposed to--this seems like it'd be a great way to hear the exact song you want, exactly when you want it, without paying a dollar every time. But maybe I'm overestimating the attraction of this kind of impulse listening.
Wireless sync. The iPod Touch and iPhone have a Wi-Fi connection. Apple's AirPort system is perhaps the most usable home Wi-Fi technology out there. But you still can't sync your music library wirelessly--you have to connect the device to your computer. Seems like an obvious oversight, and one that Apple could fix with a software update.
User interaction. Over the years, friends and other musicians have been my most reliable source of new music recommendations. iTunes has some features along this line--in particular, iMix shows you playlists from other users and their average rating among all users--but it seems like there's room for innovation here.
What about a way to find individual users with similar tastes to my own and share playlists, samples, or streaming songs with them? The Zune's three-days, three-plays limitation makes the direct song exchange uninteresting, but it might be possible to build on that idea--say, a "DJ" mode that could let you stream a playlist to anybody else in Wi-Fi range, or allowing users to select songs on a virtual jukebox (say, at Starbucks) via the Wi-Fi network.
The Beatles. I'm never falling for that rumor again. If it finally does happen, it'll be anticlimactic after all the rumors.
Update: I clarified some wording in the last paragraph to make it clear that the subscription price includes the hardware, not just support.
I confess that, years ago, I was one of those people who was skeptical and somewhat uncomprehending when Linux seller Red Hat changed its pricing to a subscription model, charging for software updates and support over a set period of time. Traditional software companies charge for a license to use a particular piece of technology, but that doesn't work as well in the open-source domain, where getting access to the software itself is easy and free.
Now, with many open-source software companies also offering subscriptions, the approach seems comparatively ordinary. So it should come as no surprise that Digium, which commercializes the open-source Asterix software for Internet telephony, announced this week that it's chosen the subscription model to sell its wares.
The difference here is that Huntsville, Ala.-based Digium sells hardware along with the software, a product called the Digium Asterisk Appliance. In the past, the company sold software, hardware and service as separate options. Now the company is switching to the new model, under which customers will be able to pay for silver, gold and platinum levels of support and warranty subscriptions, a company representative said.
The cheapest subscription level, silver, starts at $1,145 per year, a price that includes the company's voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) product. It's available in the United States and Canada and will be available internationally next quarter.
Photo-sharing site Zooomr is mostly relaunched in its version 3 incarnation, and now the two-person company has begun offering $19.95 "pro" account subscriptions in hopes of raising money.
Zooomr wants users to buy new pro accounts.
(Credit: Zooomr)"We do need to make at least a little money to survive," Chief Executive Thomas Hawk said in a blog posting Monday. "The community has stepped up and helped us in the most generous of ways, and we are hoping that all of you who find Zooomr meaningful will also consider helping us out by turning pro."
Those with pro accounts won't see ads when the company starts showing them "some time in the near future to help pay the bills." Pro account holders also will get access to analysis tools and other features not available to those with free accounts, he added.
Zooomr's chief competitor, Yahoo's photo-sharing behemoth Flickr, costs $24.95 per year.
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