Is Redhat free?
 

Uh, I wanted to see if I could try redhat sometime ago and whenever I search free redhat download, it takes me to fedora...so the question is: is Redhat free or is fedora the free-version of redhat and redhat costs money? Cause i heard the redhat is free so I am not sure, it just keeps saying that its fedora but I have fedora now, so please tell if its free or not if it is can somebody give me a download link. Can somebody explain how this works. I also heard people say that some versions are free and some are not and that support costs money, but by support do people mean updates? Thank you for any help. If it is please give me a download link where you get it, because i googled,binged,asked,yahood,and msned and still could not find it.

-Bumlebee

Hello,

RedHat is a special case IMHO. Seems they have free editions, enterprise edtions, paying editions. It's not clear to me either ;) but if you're interested in RedHat Enterprise Linux, then you might check out CentOS. It's quite the same as the RHEL with other graphics. You can download a copy from their site.

Kind regards,

Eric

Getting a Red Hat distro is not free, but as per the GPL, they have to publish all the source code that they distribute, so you can get the source and compile your own version of Red Hat. This is what CentOS and Scientific Linux do, making them effectively the same as Red Hat.

Fedora is the free version on Red Hat, but it is not the same version. It is newer and tends to be used to test new features and options before going into the pay version. So it means Fedora gets the new stuff first, but it also means it does all the bug hunting and fixing, but you would have to do that no matter what distro you ran as part of living on the bleeding edge.

A simple question which, sadly, doesn't have an easy answer.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_Libre for a discussion on the two different meanings of the word "free".

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a free (libre) software distribution, only in that it is a distribution based on free software. However, they do charge money for it, which includes email or telephone support, and so it is not free (gratis).

One reason RHEL isn't free (libre) is that you can't take Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD and install it on a second computer without paying for a second licence, as it includes proprietary trademarks that are protected under trademark law. (As far as I know, no-one's tested this in court, and it may be at odds with the letter of some licences such as GPL3). However, everyone agrees that you can take RHEL, remove the Red Hat trademarks and create a new distribution from it, that can then be redistributed freely. One distribution that does just this is CentOS, which has exactly the same binaries as Red Hat Enterprise.

Fedora is free software in both senses of the word, and it is a separate distribution from Red Hat Enterprise, but built by (mostly) the same people. No support is available other than packaged security updates and software upgrades.

For completeness, Red Hat Linux is a discontinued distribution, whose last version was Red Hat 9 when it was split into Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core (now Fedora). Red Hat Linux was free software in both senses of the word.

No. Most distros provide updates for free. They're referring to commercial support... i.e- you can call Red Hat's help/support hotline if you have a problem, rather than posting on a public forum like LQ.

Cheers

Unfortunately getting the compiled binaries for RHEL(Red Hat Enterprise Linux) is not free, a license($) is required to access their binary repos.

Centos is RHEL with the logos removed. It is made from RHEL source rpms (sans proprietary bits, mostly logos). Centos is free to download/update(unlike RHEL) and is binary compatible with RHEL. Centos/RHEL5.X will have support(as in updates) until at least 2014, whereas any one version of Fedora only has support for thirteen months. Generically all the packages for RHEL5.X(and clones) are designated el5.

A randomly selected example.

CentOS is also an excellent distro, I might add. ;)

Cheers

Actually, you can, you just won't get any support or updates from RHEL ...

I believe he was referring to legal terms. For all intents and purposes, one could use the same disc to install Windows on several PCs, but you don't want to be caught with the illegal installations.

Not so; see this thread, specifically post #2 http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ght=rhel+legal

The license is for support/updates.

Which part?

or

While my metaphor may have been less than perfect (it's for certain that you won't actually go to jail for 'illegally' installing RHEL), it still sets an example-- Why would one run an unsupported copy when a free supported version is available?