Progeny To Offer Support For Red Hat 8.0 and 9

zerocool^ writes "In a previous story it was noted that Progeny would offer support to Red Hat 7.2 and 7.3 customers facing an End of Life deadline of 31 December 2003. Progeny has updated their 'transitional software' offerings to include support for Red Hat 8.0 and 9 for $5 per month, per machine. This is great news for IT folks who are faced with the choice of a new OS or abandoned 1-year-old software."

Comments

Article Text

[Anonymous Coward]

Progeny Transition Service

NEW! Support added for Red Hat(R) Linux(R) 8.0 & 9

Beginning January 1, 2004, Progeny will offer software updates for users of Red Hat(R) Linux(R) 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, and 9. This service is based on Progeny's Platform Services technology and will provide a flexible migration path for RHL subscribers.

Progeny Transition Service includes the following features:

* Subscribers have access to a software repository containing security updates.
* Patches will also be available via Novell(R)'s Ximian(R) Red Carpet Enterprise(TM) version 2.0.
* Subscribers will be notified of security vulnerabilities and available patches.
* Pricing is $5 per machine per month; or a flat rate of $2,500 per month for unlimited machines.
* Quotes for custom platform services are available.
* Limited to x86 support.

This service is part of Progeny's Platform Services.

There will be no up2date support initially...

[krbvroc1]

Their initial plans are to roll this out using a password protected website (that could be automated using wget, etc). I would prefer up2date or something similar to keep things updated.

This seems like a pretty big undertaking...I wish them luck with the resources of patching/recompiling all the packages.

Re:Strength of OSS.

[gid13]

If I'm wrong about this, call me an idiot, but I always had the impression that other companies never provided security patches to Windows.

Re:behold

[SharpFang]

Since all heavy-duty nerds (that could handle mostly every kind of problem) have moved from RedHat (newbie distro) to Debian (zealot distro) it's pretty hard to get decent help on harder RedHat problems.
Meanwhile, who would pay for user support when all you need is /join #debian on irc.debian.org, ask your question and at worst get redirected to the right RTFM.

Go Linux!!

[pair-a-noyd]

$5 a month is a STEAL...

People should jump on this.
I wish the company doing this well.

More power to OSS!!

Re:'IT' folks

[vimico]

but it would seem to me that if you're getting paid to maintain a Linux system, you should already have a few manuals handy and be able to diagnose and solve your problems without resorting to calling some tech support place...

My guess is, the important part of these support contracts is not the tech hotline, but the integration of security patches into the applications, especially if those applications have distro-specific modifications.

Re:Careful with the "Strength of OSS"

[Jungle guy]

If you want a Linux-based operating system that does not change every month, pick Debian stable. It has not changed for ages, and doesn't break. If you want stability but also want software that is up to date, pick Red Hat Advanced Server or Enterprise. Both are free as in speach, but only Debian is free as in beer.

Re:Google

[ninjaz]

Customisations within certain limits are OK. Like, installing more software through RPM, recompiling the kernel, editing services, setting up configuration and user accounts, but if, say, the user support guy depends on kudzu to tell your hardware, and you just uninstalled it, most probably you will be politely asked to reinstall it, no matter how much you hate it and don't want it in your system.

I don't know about Progeny support, but Red Hat support explained the scope of their Advanced Server support to me quite clearly: They will only support software shipped on their CD insofar as problem was triggered by software shipped on their CD.

For instance, recompiling their Apache 1.3.x rpm, to set -DHARD_SERVER_LIMIT higher than their absurdly low compiled-in value of 256 to a higher value does not gain you support with the 2.4.9 kernel bug triggered by high values of MaxClients. To provide any broader scope of support doesn't scale is what the rep told me.

Re:One more good reason

[DA-MAN]

Whoops, I was spelling it wrong. It is TaoLinux. The URL is in the name.

It's basically YARHELR (Yet Another RedHat Enterprise Linux Rebuild)

check your facts, lest you be anti-rh fanatic

[Anonymous Coward]

redhat has always maintained that rhl will be supported for 1 year after release. the rhl 9 expiration is one year after it was released.

rh enterprise is supported for five years after release. this has not changed.

Not to be too obvious...

[msimm]

since I'm sure you know this (initial plans..) but for those who missed it they cover this in their FAQ. Basically if there is enough interest (read $$) to support it they will do it, but they are just testing the waters and would be smart not to invest too many resources until they know we'll pony up (they'll get my $60).

Re:What integrity?

[gilgongo]

Did it say "This product will only be supported for one year" on the box? Or was it just at the end of the press release, surrounded in marketbabble?

You're right - it *is* important. Most companies seek to talk down bad news, but where they owe a duty of care to their customers it pays to make things clear, and I don't think RedHat did that very well.

In particular, while Red Hat did put out the EOL statement reasonably early, they did not say what was going to happen to Red Hat Linux until Nov 3rd this year, when they sent out an email in which they casually mentioned that "Red Hat does not plan to release another product in the Red Hat Linux line."

Until then, many people thought that they had simply put a 12-month cap on updates for each release and were preparing themselved for a 12-month cycle. They didn't think the free version was going to go altogether. This was also before Fedora was announced, BTW.

I also think the media also overlooked the support issues somewhat. At the time 9 came out, I don't remember any journos writing articles saying "RedHat 9 is out... cool, but support will hit the buffers next year, look out!" Most of the coverage was just re-hashed RedHat press releases.