2.5 Red Hat Support
Early releases of Red Hat Linux were shipped to customers on floppy disks and CDs (this, of course, predated the widespread availability of broadband internet connections). When users encountered problems with the software they were only able to contact Red Hat by email. In fact, Bob Young often jokes that this was effective in limiting support requests since, by the time a customer realized they needed help, their computer was usually inoperative and therefore unavailable to be used to send an email message seeking assistance from Red Hat’s support team. In later years Red Hat provided better levels of support tied to paid subscriptions and now provides a variety of support levels ranging from “self help” (no support) up to premium support.