Red Hat Releases Enterprise Linux 5

An anonymous reader writes "Red Hat has a new release out for Enterprise Linux, reports Ars Technica. Along with several anticipated new features, Enterprise Linux 5 marks the rollout of the RedHat Exchange (RHX), which will be a source for commercial third-party software applications. 'RHX will allow consumers to buy software support services for third-party open-source technologies like MySQL database software and SugarCRM customer management systems directly from Red Hat ... Linux vendor Novell, which recently partnered with Microsoft to provide stronger Windows interoperability, is already carving out a growing portion of the enterprise Linux market. Red Hat also has to contend with proprietary database vendor Oracle, who now offers commercial Linux support for Red Hat users.'"

Comments

wow

[mastershake_phd]

A new release already, seems like just yesterday they released one.

Enterprise Operating Systems

[Professor_UNIX]

Let me be the first to say I'm very very very excited about this milestone and look forward to the first stable release of CentOS version 5.0 so us cheapskates can enjoy it as well.

Re:Enterprise Operating Systems

[Professor_UNIX]

Son of a bitch. Not only was this a dupe, but my snarky comment about being the first to mention CentOS was a dupe from the other thread as well. pwn3d.

Re:Enterprise Operating Systems

[CronScript]

$349 covers RHEL for a single, dual socket machine, 30 days of phone support and one year of updates. Support and updates for subsequent years are an additional $349 per year. It is $349 for EACH machine.

Here are more of Red Hat's terms:

5 Reporting and Inspection

5.1 Reporting. Client will promptly notify Red Hat if the number of Installed Systems exceeds the number of Installed Systems for which Client has paid the applicable fee. In its notice, Client will include both the number of additional Installed Systems and the date(s) on which such Installed Systems were put into use. Red Hat will invoice Client for the applicable Services for such Installed Systems on a pro-rata basis and Client will pay for such Services in accordance with this Agreement.

5.2 Inspection. During the term of this Agreement and for one (1) year thereafter, Red Hat or its designated agent may inspect and review Client's facilities and records in order to verify Client's compliance with this Agreement. Any such inspection and review will take place only during Client's normal business hours and upon no less than ten (10) days prior written notice from Red Hat. Red Hat will give Client written notice of any non-compliance, including the number of underreported Installed Systems, and Client will have fifteen (15) days from the date of such notice to make payment to Red Hat for the applicable Services provided to the underreported Installed Systems. If Client had underreported the number of Installed Systems by more than five percent (5%), Client will also pay Red Hat for the cost of such inspection.

Re:Enterprise Operating Systems

[negative3]

I'm pretty sure that the pricing for RHEL only allows updates and support for installation on a single PC or server if you buy one copy. If you install your purchased copy on numerous machines, you may violate the support agreement.

Of course, I freely admit that I may be wrong. Red Hat's website explains it all, I leave the legal deciphering to you. I just use Fedora instead - I can get the same server packages (I especially like RH's BIND config utility, system-config-bind) without the worry. I think I may check out CentOS 5 whenever they release it (about 2 weeks from what I understand).

Re:Enterprise Operating Systems

[killjoe]

Isn't that pretty much in line with windows support? In fact it probably costs less then windows 2003 server and support by a wide margin.

Could be the next step...

[kosmosik]

I can imagine most posters will say "dupe" cause this relates to RHEL5 release. But the real news is this RHX thingie.

I think it is a good idea but it should be vendor neutral. How about something like SourceForge but focused on providing a platform for comercial support and stuff like this (stuff that organizations with money *will* to pay for).

I'm so bored

[HomelessInLaJolla]

I have plenty of free time today to finally try RedHat. Please contact me to negotiate an appropriate laptop.

No waves in the pool.

[TihSon]

Whatever the technology crowd might think of Red Hat's new toys, the markets sure don't seem to care. Their last five days show a large amount of "who cares" on Wall St.

Between the big 'O' and it's 'unbreakable' RH distro, and the advent of Nicrosoft, I think a lot of people are doing a lot of watching and waiting.

Re:No waves in the pool.

[lawaetf1]

Because the market is such a reliable judge of what makes a good technology. Every time the market beats up on RHT (which it loves to do) I buy and I've yet to go wrong with that strategy (granted I will only use this approach so long as I retain faith in the company). Consider the pummeling it got when Oracle announced Unbreakable. Anyone with a clue laughed at Oracle's move but the market reacted by pounding the stock.

So Novell has allied themselves with Microsoft which is questionable at best. From all what I've read the whole bit about cross indemnification was a last-minute "oh yeah, we'll also need you to sign this" from Microsoft. To which they replied, "yes, boss" while staring hungrily at the $240 million check.

Face it, Redhat *is* enterprise linux in the US. It got #2 in CIO magazine in terms of customer satisfaction and that's saying a whole hell of a lot (Novell came in at 23). As far as the Oracle Linux bit, I can't find the article but there was a recent piece about how nobody is adopting the rip-off OS. Even the enterprise clients that Oracle listed replied when contacted that they were either NOT using it or were doing a small pilot project. And who knows how many free licenses of 10g oracle had to give out to get even that much traction.

Re:No waves in the pool.

[tobiasly]

Whatever the technology crowd might think of Red Hat's new toys, the markets sure don't seem to care. Their last five days show a large amount of "who cares" on Wall St.

That's because this isn't news. Everyone has known for quite a while that RHEL5 would be released in this timeframe. Wall Street is controlled by big money, and big money doesn't wait until they read something in the newspaper before they act on it. They are continually in contact with the companies in their portfolio and they know what direction the company is headed in long before the general public does. This "news" was already built into the price of the stock.

Re:No waves in the pool.

[rayvd]

Well said. Coming from more of a corporate environment, I was genuinely surprised (OK, I really shouldn't have been) to read some of the comments here poking fun at Red Hat as irrelevant. In the business world, the de facto standard is still RHEL, and likely is going to continue that way. RH has been around long enough that even the suits are willing to trust its name (and to a lesser extent, SuSE)... RH is far from irrelevant, and are still the #1 private company contributing to the Linux kernel.

RHEL should have a free version, Should Axe Fedora

[rainhill]

RHEL should have a free version. And what about CentOS? you might say, I am sure RedHat can get (needs and deserves) a better karma, and a better name recognition by distributing RHEL for free, instead of CentOS doing that for them.

I would like to see that Fedora is axed or merged back into RedHat EL, rename it something like RedHat EL Beta or RHEL Express or.., at least it will give new users (kids that are being attracted to Ubuntu) a name recognition right away.

Currently it's confusing, when people speak about Fedora they rarely (if ever) mention RedHat, the next guy who hears Fedora conversation for the 1st time would think of it as just another distro, and would go with distros which currently has more buzz. and that NOT good for Redhat.

So much to say

[XB-70]

This release will be an interesting test of ORACLE's knock-off capabilities - let's see how long they take to do it. CentOS will be challenged to get it out there too. I wonder which will be first.

Red Hat should not be slagged for it's efforts. This is a major accomplishment. The virtualization aspect to this release is the wave of the future. Fundamentally, we are seeing the evolution of the server platform to a new level with radically improved capabilities. I'm very disappointed that so many of you are not giving credit where credit is due.

We are starting to see a wave of movement towards Linux in general. CIO's, towns, villages, states, provinces and governments are starting to appreciate the benefits of this tremendous software. Let's aid and abet their efforts and not demean what Red Hat has achieved.

Full disclosure: I run CentOS 4.x - uptime almost 2yrs!! I have installed and managed RH 7.x and 8.x w/ ORACLE. My laptop is a cheezy Thinkpad T30 with SuSE 10.2 and I no longer use MS except to manage my CrackBerry account online.

Re:So much to say

[ettlz]

Let's aid and abet their efforts and not demean what Red Hat has achieved.

Indeed. There's an awful lot of misplaced and, let's face it, downright ungrateful anti-Red Hat FUD flying about (especially in regards to Fedora which is a good distro for the more experienced user who wants cutting edge). Red Hat is one of the biggest kernel contributors. They have a high level of commitment to Free Software (especially with Fedora). I think many of those who slag off Red Hat do so for — horror of horrors! — trying to make money out of Linux. And some of this even goes beyond mere resentment. They don't seem to get that Red Hat's investment is actually benefitial to the community.

Re:So much to say

[rohan972]

They have a high level of commitment to Free Software (especially with Fedora).

Putting src.rpm available for public download deserves a mention also. They could be GPL compliant without doing that, yet some people whine because they enforce their trademark. Red Hat make CentOS possible ... deliberately.

Re:RHEL should have a free version, Should Axe Fed

[mindstrm]

Why should it have a free version? RedHat decided NOT to do this anymore; they are protecting their trademark.

Because of the GPL (and what they provide to the community goes well beyond what the GPL requires), CentOS is made possible.

The effect you are describing (people thinking RedHat is somehow differnet than fedora) is *exactly* what RedHat Inc. wants.