to partly answer my own question: 'Yesterday afternoon Miguel de Icaza, co-founder of Ximian and current CTO, told me, "We are going to support Fedora, and we are going to support Red Hat. Remember, we want our software to be as widely used as possible." He added, "We are Linux vendor-neutral. We are going to support every Linux distribution because different markets have different needs. It just makes sense to be vendor-agnostic and support every player in town." ... As to the void left by Red Hat offering Red Hat Network support only for Enterprise Linux customers, the Red Hat moves have created a golden opportunity for Ximian to expand its customer base. Ximian's Red Carpet provides the same type of services as the Red Hat Network - high-speed lines for downloads and automated updates for security and bug fixes - for a comparable price. All Ximian needs to do to gain new customers from those abandoned by RHN is to support Fedora, and they say that's what they're going to do. http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/11/03/2136258&mode=thread&tid=151
