Exception to IBM Style "on premises"/"on-premises"

[nmuller66]

Red Hat has decided to diverge from English grammar and the IBM Style Guide to use the incorrect "on premise" or "on-premise" if used as an adjective or adverb.

I disagree rather strongly (wouldn't searching "on premises" produce similar results to "on premise"?) about making exceptions to IBM Style that are not really critical to the business and are grammatically just wrong. However, if this is what is agreed upon we better document it.

Get ready for feedback that this decision is grammatically incorrect. Or maybe it's just me.

[daobrien]

Note that this is not actually new. We (RH, via Word Nerds) adopted "on-premise" back in 2012 and it's been debated at least annually ever since. It's a bit like Vim/Emacs and PS2 prompts or not, and so on. The "on-premise" form is based primarily on SEO results and general popularity. It seems logic and grammatical correctness aren't strong enough motivators for change.

I don't do the SEO testing so I can't argue the difference between "on-premise" and "on-premises".