[Novalug] RedHat Desktop Subscription Model

Robert Kuropkat robert@kuropkat.com
Mon Mar 17 17:30:53 EDT 2008


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Just to add one more opinion, though I think it agrees with bits and
pieces from other responses.

1.  Yes Red Hat is geared towards businesses only.  Fedora came into
existence as a result of Red Hat dumping desktop support.  In that
sense, I would guess many laptop needed features would be more difficult
to obtain from Red Hat than others since things such as wireless, and
even display issues are just not as necessary on a server.

2.  I have no experience with CentOS but as I understand it, their
objective is to maintain a free and compatible version of Red Hat.  I do
not know how well they maintain that objective.  However, you probably
won't usually want bleeding edge patches anyway because the vendor will
not have certified against them.  In fact, with Oracle in particular
they tell you to NOT update from Red Hat at all.  Instead, their support
model is you update your Oracle/Red Hat server from ORACLE!!

3.  Generally, large companies like Oracle have chosen Red Hat as their
supported platform.  That of course does not mean it is the only place
it runs.  Instructions for installing Oracle on Ubuntu are readily
available outside of the official Oracle Support structure.

4.  If Red Hat certification is what you want, you really have no choice
but to install Red Hat :-).  However, I would suggest a cheap PC with
very generic parts for things such as video so you can get Red Hat on
there with minimal fuss.  Don't risk your day to day laptop with
something like this.  Just spend extra time with a friend who is about
to upgrade to Windows Vista and offer to take care of that old worthless
XP machine for them...

Additionally, you can get Red Hat free, just not the updates.  All that
means is you periodically need to make a major jump between versions.
If you are dealing mostly with self paced study, this is probably
sufficient.  If you are doing this on a small PC at home and not your
day to day laptop/desktop, then you probably really don't need to stay
current on security updates, etc.  Just keep your surrounding network in
shape.

Depending on exactly what you are trying to do (e.g. keep up on Red Hat
and all the vendor supported applications on Red Hat, Red Hat
Certification, or something really narrow such as Oracle on Linux, you
can probably do most of what you want on the cheap.  i.e. Unless you are
trying to emulate the office environment at home, you probably aren't
trying to do something like option one since keeping up on EVERYTHING on
Red Hat is more than a bit daunting.  And if this is a spare PC, you can
pretty much scrag it and restart when you decide to switch from Oracle
study to some other major application later.

So I wouldn't abandon your plans so quickly, just re-align them a little...

Robert Kuropkat



Ken Kauffman wrote:
> Here is the issue.  It's not just certification.  It's also continued
> development.  So as new products emerge, I'd like to take advantage of the
> RedHat desktop.  Anyway, I've abandoned this effort as it's cost prohibitive
> for my objectives.
> 
> Ken
> 
> On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Kevin Chin <kevinchin5@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Ken, I know you're primarily interested in the RH desktop...  so (first)
>> if you're just trying to use it to prepare for certification exams, couldn't
>> you just use the eval version?
>>
>> Secondly on this topic -- and for other's benefit I did want to confirm
>> that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) subscriptions are $50 per year..
>> It includes (from what I could tell) roughly all the same features (more or
>> less). One difference for example, SLED includes OpenOffice.org - Novell
>> Edition, which can be used on Linux or Windows workstations -  helpful to
>> businesses trying to migrate from Windows to Linux desktops.  Details at
>> http://www.novell.com/desktop
>>
>> FYI - Novell BrainShare (our annual conference) is next week in Salt Lake
>> City, so expect to hear additional Novell/SUSE related news and
>> announcements shortly.  (wink-wink)
>>
>> --Kc
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 13, 2008 at 8:58 PM, John B. Holmblad <jholmblad@aol.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>  Ken,
>>>
>>> I think the $179/year for support is a bit steep. My information may be
>>> obsolete but it is my understanding that Novell charges only $50/year for
>>> SLED. Now I know that it is important to "normalize" feature sets and the
>>> level of support between the two products in order to have a meaningful
>>> comparison but it is my understanding that, from a feature perspective, at
>>> least, RHW and SLED are close.
>>>
>>> ~5  years ago I started with RH Professional only to have them drop the
>>> product and then I purchased a subscription for RHEL 3.0 for ~$350/year
>>> for a few years.
>>>
>>>
>>>   Best Regards,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> John Holmblad
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Televerage International
>>>
>>> GSEC Gold,   GCWN Gold,   GAWN,  GGSC-0100,   NSA-IAM,  NSA-IEM
>>>
>>> Information security, telecommunications, and information technology
>>> consulting
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> (M) 703 407 2278
>>>
>>> (F)  703 620 5388
>>>
>>> primary email address:  jholmblad@aol.com
>>>
>>> backup email address:  jholmblad@verizon.net
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Ken Kauffman wrote:
>>>
>>> Does anyone have the same apprehension with purchasing RedHat?
>>>
>>> Here is the issue.  I have no problem paying for a stable Linux
>>> distribution for the desktop with support offerings.  RedHat would be my
>>> choice over SuSE based on personal experience in the past.  My apprehension
>>> is that the RedHat desktop is licensed annually.
>>>
>>> Here is the rub.  I can purchase Windows XP Pro for about $179 today.  I
>>> can also purchase RH Workstation for $179, however, after one year I have to
>>> fork up another $179 for support.  With Windows, I continue to get security
>>> patches for the life of the product.
>>>
>>> Or -- is the RedHat model only geared for businesses and not personal
>>> adopters?  Would CentOS be the better option as a result?  And if so, can I
>>> install packages intended for RedHat the same on CentOS?  (Think Oracle)
>>>
>>> The reason I raise this is that I do not want to tangle with the
>>> bleeding edge of Fedora.  My dilemma with the whole wireless failures of
>>> Fedora is the reason I'm looking for a pay for support model for personal
>>> use.
>>>
>>> I realize there are other solid offerings out there in the "free" space,
>>> but what is in the paid support space that doesn't take a chunk out of my
>>> wallet each year?
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>>> Ken
>>>
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