[H-GEN] [fwd] End of Life: Red Hat Linux 6.2, 7

[Russell Stuart]

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On Mon, 2003-04-07 at 15:17, Tony Nugent wrote:
>   And the long term danger is that as more and more aging redhat
>   servers keep running without adequate security/bugfix updates...
>   well, the side-effects are obvious.
> 
> Debian is a stiff learning curve, but going from the support it has
> around humbug and other aust lug folks, it seems that the effort
> should be worth it...
Like you, I have been watching Red Hat's moves with some trepidation.  I
also have come to the conclusion that at home I should switch to
Debian.  Philosophically, that is what a grass-roots person should be
running anyway, and I have been meaning to switch for some time.  In
some ways Red Hat is doing me a favour.

But at work I have trouble bringing myself to run Debian.  The amount
Red Hat is going to hit us for an update subscription is not really
significant to a business, so should not be a difficult decision to stay
with them ... except trying to find out what is in their enterprise
products has been beyond me.  The previous versions of enterprise used a
2.4.9 kernel which sucked - it had memory leaks, and was slow.  But you
can't download the new version and see.  I have sent emails to Red Hat
Australia, but they are doing a good imitation of a bit bucket. 
Information on www.redhat.com is marketing fluff.  There isn't even a
version number on there for pete's sake - in fact I am not even sure the
dammed thing has been released.  A list of rpm's would be a good start,
but I don't know where to look.

To be honest I am not sure what Red Hat 9 is good for.  As you noticed
its no use for the home brew hobbyist.  He doesn't want to pay money and
he wants updates.  Its no good for the corporates - only a year of
security updates is a joke.  And is no good as a desktop replacement for
your typical home user.  He doesn't want much - just a client PC, and he
is probably willing to pay money, but he needs a subscription to
automatic security updates that will last the life of his computer.

Right now it looks like Red Hat is going through a transition, a change
in business model that will ensure they are profitable.  It probably
means I will have to spend more money with them, but that is fine with
me.  So far I've given them nothing other than a few bug reports, and am
feeling a mite guilty.  The only problem is that they have not quite
figured out what they are transitioning to, or if they have they are not
telling anybody.  I hope they get it sorted soon.

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