no more redHat Linux ;(

[AzKidd69]

got this in an email from redhat earlier.. looks like they are trying to go to server level only and get off the desktop..

Dear azkidd69,

Thank you for being a Red Hat Network customer.

This e-mail provides you with important information about the upcoming
discontinuation of Red Hat Linux, and resources to assist you with your
migration to another Red Hat solution.

As previously communicated, Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and
errata support for Red Hat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 8.0 as of December
31, 2003. Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and errata support for
Red Hat Linux 9 as of April 30, 2004. Red Hat does not plan to release
another product in the Red Hat Linux line.

With the recent announcement of Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.3, you'll
find migrating to Enterprise Linux appealing. We understand
that transitioning to another Red Hat solution requires careful planning
and implementation. We have created a migration plan for Red Hat Network
customers to help make the transition as simple and seamless as
possible. Details:

****************
If you purchase Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS or ES Basic before February
28, 2004, you will receive 50% off the price for two years.[*] (That's two
years for the price of one.)

****************
In addition, we have created a Red Hat Linux Migration Resource Center
to address your migration planning and other questions, such as:

* What are best practices for implementing the migration to Red Hat
Enterprise Linux?

* Are there other migration alternatives?

* How do I purchase Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS or ES Basic at the price
above?

* What if my paid subscription to RHN extends past April 30, 2004?

****************

Find out more about your migration options with product comparisons,
whitepapers and documentation at the Red Hat Linux Migration Resource
Center:

http://www.redhat.com/solutions/migration/rhl/rhn


Or read the FAQ written especially for Red Hat Network customers:

https://rhn.redhat.com/help/rhlmigrationfaq/

Sincerely,

Red Hat, Inc.

[lost-and-found]

I can't believe this......although never a Red Hat user myself this is still REALLY shocking, are you sure this is from Red Hat and not from some scam artist pretending to be Red Hat?

[AzKidd69]

considering the email acct it went to was specifically created FOR redhat umm yea.... (redhat@_my_domain.com) anytime I have to give a website an email addy I use the website name as the username of the email as *@my_domain.com goes to my email client. makes it easier to see who breaks their privacy agreements and also makes it easy to filter out addy's the spammers have gotten ahold of

ahh now I see what is going on.. they are going to a 'subscription model'
http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/

[Scott Tiger]

Guess I'll either migrate to Debian or *BSD.

[DanGrease]

Can't believe this, as a Linux Redhat user myself this is not a great thing to be knowing about. From what I understand is that they are not going to support the versions beside 9.0 and the shrike version is going to be supported until a date and then no more Redhat? I thought they would still continue doing more versions but it looks like they have other plans.

dan

[AzKidd69]

looks like you are not the only one.. the annual subscription pricing for RedHat Network jumps from 60$$/yr to 179$$/year for basically the same exact thing.. argh.. I guess I could always get the fedora project.. at least it's still free and has the redhat network (basically the same as windows update)

[EvilRick]

You guys should have seen this coming. It's RedHat, they're so "wanna be Microsoft" it's not even funny.

I would imagine this has been in plan for a loooong time.

[ooops]

From what I've read , until the 2.6 kernal is "official" they are just waiting.

[AzKidd69]

I don' t really mind the subscription plan AS LONG as it's a decent price BUT 179$$/yr. I wa already paying 60$/yr for access to unswamped ISO servers AND their update servers. But this pricing scheme needs to be rethought as th eprice tag is way too high/yr IMO. I mean can you imagine payin 179$/yr for 3 years (average lifespan of an enterprise OS before a new version is released)

I can get win xp pro for less than that. come on redhat get a clue.... at least XP pro has free updates until End of Life

[samwichse]

That's interesting, because I just got my RH9 demo account extended another 3 months, and none of this. Are you sure it's not just an EOL statement (end of life) for older RH versions?

Sam

[AzKidd69]

originally posted by me
Red Hat will discontinue maintenance and errata support for Red Hat Linux 9 as of April 30, 2004. Red Hat does not plan to release another product in the Red Hat Linux line

can't get much more clear than that IMO
also that's a REALLY shortl ife for RH9 IMO. Not even a year (or JUST barely not sure)

[samwichse]

Geez... my favorite distro too...

WTF, I guess I'll have to download mandrake now, but I'm just so darned used to tweaking RedHat.

Is 9.2 stable yet?

[Emc2]

::hmph::
So much for windows converts like me...looks like it's all up to mandrake now to get more 'recruits'. I'll just have to keep the redhat that I currently have until a better distro comes out.

[iNeb]

I don't use redhat, i did once, but never liked it, i'm not interested in it. Too much of a enterprise OS


But you DO understand that redhat is meant to be for ENTERPRISES and not for home use right??? They don't want pidly little home users, they want big enterprises where $179 per year is pocket change.

RedHat was never meant to be a home OS as far as i can tell..

[nukes]

RH has long since been going after the server market. But I do know lots of unis and the like use RH in their Linux Labs. I wonder how this will affect them?
UNIX isn't meant as a workstation/desktop OS. Its meant for servers. Same as Linux. It has just developed in all directions due to it being open source, and the development model of the kernel, as well as all the applications that come with it.
RH long ago realised that the real money was in enterprise computing. Not so much corporate desktops as they can afford to shell out for 95/98 and just use samba for networking. RH isn't for the desktop anymore, so what, its been clear for a while now that RH was focused on servers etc. rather than home users. Its just the way it goes.

[Ruler2112]

I use it at work and really like it. It's perfect for servers and business workstations. Kinda lacking as a home desktop though - games are too restrictive and they're hard to get working.

This really does suck. I'm going to have to look into Mandrake and other distros to see which one I should migrate all the machines to, then make sure my apps run as they're supposed to, then get the people used to the new distro.

[iNeb]

If you know what you're doing, use slackware

[e980238]

I used to be a huge fan of RedHat untill recentley. 7.3 was where I began to lose interest. 8.0 looked too XP'ish and 9.0 had too many dependency problems for me to even begin bothering with. Since the day it came out (sept 26, 2003), I have been using slackware 9.1 and dont miss redhat 1 bit. It just works! No depenency crap, no seg faults, no weird crashes, like I said, it just works. I know a lot of people were waiting for redhat 10.0 so I know they will be disapointed, but life goes on.

[e980238]

Originally posted by iNeb
If you know what you're doing, use slackware

Darn, you beat me to it
Guess I type too slow

[samwichse]

On doing a little further research, it looks like what is happening is the maintence of the RedHat distro is now moving into the hands of individuals with corporate help, and being renamed Fedora.

Fedora

Sam

EDIT: Does mandrake have an auto-update that anyone can use (ie, no command line apt-get update)? I have to do a new-computer build on Friday and install some flavor of linux on it, and I'd rather go with something not beta.