Hi everyone,

I just read from somewhere that Red Hat ends support for RH9 on March, 2004.

So what does one do when Red Hat stops providing updates for your distribution?

I'm just a regular desktop user, but I would like to keep my systems up to date as we all do...

Thanks in advance for any replies...

- Bryan

For everyone, not "somewhere", but: http://www.redhat.com/errata

One of your options would be to upgrade to Red Hat Professional Workstation, which you can get as a retail product for 99 USD or less, which is considerably cheaper than Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS. It's based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, though.

You may choose to count on the Fedora Legacy community project, which plans to extend the life time of Red Hat Linux 7.3, 9 and Fedora Core releases.

Another option on the completely free side is to upgrade to Fedora Core sooner or later, in April 2004 it'll probably be release 2.

Sorry for the 'somwhere' part... I actuall found out about it date here: http://security-site.seifried.org/ar.../10/28/0917212

Thanks for your reply...

The Fedora Legacy project does look like the answer...

Howzit

Your best option will be to go with Fedora as this will be RH open source version or release for the open source community. Fedora wont have releases as such but updates therefor each time u make a update it will be the lastest version.

On a side note RH only provided errata or support for a year on non enterprised based versions. Enterprise version will have errata for 5 years but there is a price of course


Hope this helps

chow

But sure will Fedora Core have "stable" releases of the distribution, with ISO images, too. See http://fedora.redhat.com

Kurt Seifried's point of view is that of a server admin, not "just a regular desktop user" as is written in the first post. Kurt has different requirements.

--
$ cat /etc/fedora-release
Fedora Core release 1 (Yarrow)

Hmmm,

I have actually downloaded Fedora and burned it to discs... from what I understand it's still in its test versions... It does look like upgrading to Fedora is the best option for a regular desktop user like I am...

Perhaps when they release Fedora 1 (and that does sound like soon).

Let me clarify my motivations behind this post... I actually chuck out $60 a year for an update service entitlement from Red Hat, since my first successful linux install (and use) which was RH 7.3... Now I was thinking, what are the options if I choose not to renew?

Since support for RH 9 ends next year (though my entitlement ends August of next year), I was re-evaluating my options...


Thanks for the advice fellas....

I'm still mulling.....


- Bryan

edit... just checked my entitlements... for some reason, I have two... Doh! (smacks self in head)... I may have paid for two... (yup, I'm a dumbass)...

I have two also.

It appears you are allowed one free, which they were calling demo. After paying for an Enterprise entitlement there comes with it an Update entitlement.

______________________________________________
Order ID Purchased Expires Service Name Subscriptions
(none) 2003-05-15 2004-05-14 Red Hat Network Management Service 1 Management
N/A (none) (none) Upgraded Demo Subscription 1 Update



Total free subscriptions: 1 Upgraded Demo, 0 Update Service, 0 Management Service. One complimentary subscription to Demo Service is available to all users of Red Hat Network.

Total trial subscriptions: 0 Update Service, 0 Management Service. Trial subscriptions are available to customers who register their Red Hat Linux products, and are non-renewable.

Total paid subscriptions: 0 Update Service, 1 Management Service.

______________________________________________________

Strange though that I have had it free for years. I am not aware of a limit for system profiles. You can just change entitlements to any computer you need to update.


I downloaded my system iso's so I have never registered a product. It appears that you get a Trial subscription if you do, and free forever Update if you don't.

This is quite a paradox: "Fedoras as this will be RH open source version or release for the open source community...
I think RH IS already Open Source although it's well paid... RedHat wants to create Microsoft Linux which I think it's not a good idea.... hope someone stop that crazy money machine and remember it about what linux is about

bxb32001,

you can continue to use your RHN entitlements for keeping a Fedora Core installation up-to-date.

That is good to know, but the question that follows that is....

Do I need an Update Service Entitlement to keep my RH box (RH9 or Fedora) updated? Can I do without?

Won't an 'apt-get update' (or yum update) satisfy this requirement (of keeping my RH9 or Fedora up to date)?

I agree that Kurt Seifried's point of view is that of a server admin, not "just a regular desktop user" and that he has different requirements... but though I am just a desktop user, I tend to use my home PC heavily for work and of course, family stuff, so like any computer user, I would like to keep my system secure, stable, and yet up to date.

I guess I'm trying to find out if there are any significant advantages for having an update entitlement as opposed to going without one, from the point of a dektop user...

APT/Yum would suffice. Fedora's up2date supports APT/Yum repositories itself.

A RHN entitlement gives priority access to errata releases, instant ISOs, supports Red Hat, and makes it very easy for the average desktop user to keep a system up-to-date.

After reading all of this my spin is that some of the top executives that are working for Red Hat are trying to compete against M$. Just pure speculation!

On the flip side you cannot run a company off of pure kindness, but instead production sales, offering services, updates, documentation, training, and etc... thus making profits are what keeps companies around. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out...

It just sounds like somebody is getting a case of the "M!CR0$0FT$"

I am a newbie and really enjoyed the simplicity of the Red Hat installation and the GUI effects. Sure, I had my shares of incompatibility issues, but who hasn't? My first install took over 10 hours due to lack of knowledge on my part but I did not give up...

I feel kind of guilty since I am typing this on a M$ OS, but at least they are still supporting it... I paid for it one time and the updates are still continuing. Until they get this all worked out I will continue to use the greedy OS...

Anyone switching to another true open source that is good for newbies?

Sincerely,
Silly Sam
E-mail the Silly Sam Newbie

howzit

My opion is that RH is trying to focus on a quality product suppling a good services where it is difficult to find, as there is so much competion amongste companies in trying to have the latest and greatest before everybody else.

Lets look at the stability of RH Enterprise look at the amount of errata u get compared to RH. This indicates quality and not just stick something out there and hope for the best, or maybe say OH we will send out some patches to rectify the problem.

I think they have taken the right approach for companies to take Linux seriously, even the Linux logo is cute and cuddlely. It will give Linux a more professional service orientated approach I say this because thats what u pay for and not the software like many other comapnies do.

chow

being a regular user and not a company that needs all the extra pay services....install Gentoo. You can stay up-2-date via 2 simple commands.

emerge sync
emerge -u world


and you have the latest version of Gentoo and all the upgrades and patches to installed software. Except maybe for the kernel but that is also installed with a few simple commands and maybe a change of a symbolic link.

i wish i would pay 99 bucks for Linux support....(im more of a do-it-yourselfer).

Updates at RH are still working