Red Hat Network for the Masses 218
Outland Traveller writes: "A few months ago I sent some feedback to RedHat concerning their then $30/month RHN subscription service. I asked them to consider offering a $5/month low end version more suitable for home users with multiple computers. I'm sure that a plenty of other people offered the same suggestion, but I was still surprised when I opened my email this morning and found that the exact service I asked for is not only being offered, but that fast access to iso images has been added as well, among other improvements. I guess I now have to put my money where my mouth is :) Seriously though, this should be good news for people who download RedHat's .iso images but want to financially support RedHat in a way that makes sense."
Re:Open Source up2date server (Score:3, Informative)
Re:$5 is better than nothing (Score:5, Informative)
I know how much they are paying because I work for the company that hosts their FTP servers. Trust me...they sit upon dual OC-48 feeds, right on the backbone which means low latency. I don't know what kind of bandwidth they commit to each month but I do know our company loves them. But that kind of access costs. You folks should appreciate the free downloads and help when you can. I have always bought my Red Hat CD.
Myxx
Re:Old model (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Difference between subscriptions (Score:5, Informative)
But for the lazy, the $30 is really targeted at Enterprise customers. It offers support for things like multiple admins, grouping systems to perform updates on a group, etc... It's suited for running more than 4 or 5 machines in your apartment. Think hundreds, or even thousands, in the workplace.
What about Red Carpet? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Maybe I'm missing something... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I'd prefer to paypal them. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Too slow, chicken marengo... (Score:2, Informative)
Oh wait, THEY ALREADY HAVE. It's called testing and if you had read any debian news within the past year you would know about it.
Re:Too slow, chicken marengo... (Score:3, Informative)
But testing does still break periodically. Testing is - well - relatively untested.
Debian is a great distribution and definitely has its niches, but it seems fair to ensure that people don't think the testing version is comparable to what RedHat is offering. RedHat releases undergo a good amount of testing. With Debian testing, you're the one doing the testing.
If you can't afford some down time now and then, or if you aren't comfortable doing a bit of command line work when your X server suddenly doesn't come up after an upgrade, you need to steer clear. Stick with ancient Debian 2.2, which may be the most stable release on the planet, or look elsewhere if you need the newer whiz bang stuff without giving up a ton of stability.
Difference between update sub and software sub (Score:5, Informative)
what's the difference between this kind of subscription and Microsoft's ?
If you don't pay Red Hat, you can still use the software you have, and you can get new software off rpmfind [rpmfind.net]. If you don't pay Microsoft, on the other hand, you lose your right to use the software because under a rental agreement, you are not the owner of a copy, and in the United States, 17 USC 117 states that the owner of a copy can dictate terms of use.
Re:Two final issues with RHN (Score:2, Informative)
This is _optional_. You don't have to do this.