after installation i have that red button with an exclamation point, i clicked it.... but actually, i also went to their website to activate my computer, question:

1. is it necessary to do it?
2. i don't have a code what's with the code?

clarifications please

Oh my . I really have no idea what you are saying. Sorry... Could you please be more specific? The distribution you installed, when and where you get the exclamation... There are over 100 linux distributions out there, so it's hard to guess the one you've tried

oh i'm sorry lolz, i forgot, i'm using red hat 9

it's a small round button, i forgot what's it called

Cool, thanks sweet*amber !. Hmmmm, if I remember right, that exclamation tells you that new updates are available. If it's red, that means that you can, if you want, download updates, if it's blue, that means that you are up-to-dated

I've just started using Redhat too, and I think I know what youre talking about.

From what I can tell, it seems to be a feature of Redhat for downloading updates automatically. If you're a Windows man, this is very similar to Windows XP's Automatic Updates feature.

However, it differs from Windows in that you don't have to activate it and register your copy of Redhat (I'm not sure if they charge for this or not), but unless you do register with them (and get a code), you won't be able to use the updates feature.

You can set it to just dissappear and stop bugging you, but I can't remember how exactly. There's an option in one of the dialog boxes that comes up when you click on it. Have a look and see if you can find it.

If you use apt-get for Redhat, you should be able to upgrade your distribution as well, without the need for the Redhat's update.

I remember using that Redhat feature long ago, and I really don't think that it cost anything, since I'm cheap . Some packages, as the kernel, could not be upgraded, but you could put it on the ignore list