I have heard many mixed answers about this, and I am now curious...

Is RH9 free? Or do you have to purchase a copy. If you do not purchase a copy, how can you get this product key needed for updates?

You can d/l RH9 for free from www.linuxiso.org Burn the images to CD, verify that the MD5SUM's match, and you're good to go. -- J.W.

MD5SUM's? Whats that? Okay, nevermind.

Now, second question, if I want to run a webserver/email server off of it, how much does it cost?

yes RH9 is free... but there are packaged sets that u can purchase, that contain all 7 dics, 3 binary cd's 3 source cd's and 1 document cd, and it comes with a handy reference guide that explains the setup etc etc..

I dont know of using the product key for updates.. u just have to register with the redhat network and download thier up to date ssl key thingo so u can connect and away she goes...

in regards to running a web server, you can pay for a domain or you can get one for free...

there are a few dynamic dns services out there.. i use no-ip.com basically by running a small client program, this will automatically update the server with your current IP (if it changes) and it will update its domain database so that your http://mydomain.no-ip.com will always point to your machine at your current IP

Setting up apache is relativly simple... just use the mydomain.no-ip.com domain name throughout your configs and you will be underway.

Im running a mailserver, webserver, ftp server, IM server all off a free domain with a dynamic IP and i have no troubles... and the best bit.. its FREE

Dude - md5sum is and excellent utility program which is used to verify whether or not a file (or disk image) was successfully transferred without any data corruption. In other words, even if a file appears to finish downloading correctly, that does not necessarily mean that the saved file is 100% intact. An md5sum is a quick and easy way to verify that your download was completely successful, with no lost bits. Doing on a search on these boards or Google will give you a lot more info. -- J.W.

Yeah, I figured that out, thats why I added the nevermind. I actually had someone look over my should here at work and say, oh, thats blah blah blah....

Thanks for the info...and now for an update...

Got Red Hat 9 installed, and purchased the Red Hat Bible...

Got Apache running...
Got Telnet running...
Got mysql running...
Now I am trying to get mysql-admin running...

I guess its all a learning curve, I have been using Winders for what seems like forever. Whats worse is I am an ASP programmer. Now I get to figure out php.

Thanks for the help...