[lug] Redhat Enterprise Linux

[Hugh Brown]

On Mon, 2003-08-18 at 17:30, John Hernandez wrote:
> Some folks here are negotiating a support contract for Red Hat's "Enterprise" 
> releases.  Apparently they have various flavors such as "AS, ES, WS."
> 
> I'm trying to get more details about this, but the Red Hat web site seems 
> unreachable at the moment.  Will Red Hat provide security patches for older 
> standard releases (such as 7.3) after December?  Are the Enterprise versions 
> subject to any license restrictions other than those that apply to the 
> Community distro?  If I want a free OS to last several years on a stable 
> server, is it time to switch distros?

Here's my understanding.

AS = application server and is $1500/per license intended for big
company.
ES = enterprise server and was in the $600 range I think, intended for
mid size company or dept server.
WS = enterprise workstation and was in the $300 range, intended for
desktop/workstation

security patches for 7.1-8.0 stop after Dec 31, 2003.  For 9 they stop
one year after the release date.

I believe the Enterprise versions are subject to one license for every
machine it is installed on.  So you want 10 servers, you pay for 10
licenses.

If you want a free OS to last several years on a stable server and have
someone else do the packaging of the security/bug/errata fixes to the
software installed, I believe it is time to switch to a new distro.  If
you don't mind following the security releases, taking the redhat srpms,
patching them yourself, rebuilding them, etc., then you can continue to
use Redhat or Suse or any other "consumer" versioned distro.


Hugh