Hi everybody,

I am looking for a Linux distribution which offers free and user-friendly updates. I remember RedHat offering an update service using RedHat Network and Mandrake offering their Mandrake Online update programme. The trouble is the subscription fee for these services.

- As the RedHat distribution now goes as Fedora I wonder if the update service is still available and if you still have to pay.

- Also in general which distribution would you recommend where updates (downloading security patches etc.) are simple and cheap (ideally they would be free)

Thanks,


Mkd75

Fedora supplies free updates. You can use the up2date icon in the task tray, like RH, or yum and/or apt from the command-line.

I'd be willing to bet most of the other distros do offer free updates, but I don't know what they would use.

I personally prefer Mandrake. It's free as well, and I've just had less trouble installing updates with it than Red Hat. We use RH at work and I use MDK at home. We recently switched to SUSE, and I don't have enough experience with it to give any meaningful feedback (but the updates are free also). The question is, how long will they remain free, or when will they stop being supported all of a sudden?

You can use fc2 with apt-get and synaptic and all will be fine, it-s real simple to use it ... i don't recommend red-hat up2date it isn't stable enough

I have used Suse and it is quite easy to update things. The program is called YOU (I believe this stands for Yast Online Updater). It runs a little icon near the clock which is green when you have no updates, yellow when it fails to connect, and red when there is something to update. When you click the icon and run the updater, it allows you to select a mirror, then it allows you to select which patches you want, and the rest is automatic.

The only thing you have to do to update a debian system is apt-get update && apt-get upgrade (or dist-upgrade)
in command line. And Debian (including updates) is truly free, check the social contract from the debian website for example.

hm, ok enough advertising

I have a Mandrake 10 installation too. I have heard about Mandrake Online where you can get updates but AFAIK you need a subscription. I have a Mandrakeclub subscription though, found the rpm section quite good. My current favourite is Debian as I like the philosophy behind it but I suppose it will be harder to administer than Mandrake.

Almost all of them offer free updates. It is the nature of Open Source after all. The only ones that really involve a cost are Linspire and Xandros - and even Xandros has a free version.

I downloaded Mandrake 10 Official recently and found it quite good so far. It also comes with an 'update' option (exclamation mark in the KDE/GNOME panel) but you would have to subscribe to MandrakeOnline to use that feature. Do you know any alternatives to update Mandrake?

I finally chose Mandrake for updates in the end. It comes with an applet which runs in the KDE task bar which is either green or red (green meaning system is up to date). It requires a subscription to MandrakeOnline but updates are free for Mandrakeclub members.