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Free Red Hat 6.0 CDs
Anthony Fuentes writes "You can pre-order the GPL Redhat 6.0 CD at LSL for $0.00. "
This looks legit- shipping looks like about $8 for UPS, but
it does appear to be a free CD, so if you aren't blessed with
a T1, check this out.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Well true, I didn't have to upgrade, I was perfectly happy with RedHat 5.2 But it was a free download and I had a lazy weekend so what the hell.
Now obviously there are some vast improvements to the system.
o Linux 2.2.5
o glibc 2.1 (which works great _expect_ for Staroffice 5.0)
o KDE 1.1.1
o Gnome 1.0
o XFree86 3.3.3
o Netscape 4.5
o GIMP 1.0
o Samba 2.0
o misc upgrades to all other packages
I really couldn't ask for a better suite of software than this! IMHO it was worth the time spent upgrading. I would encourge others, especiall pre 5.2 users, to upgrade to 6.0
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I am not sure how useful it is to donate money to free software projects, after all, the people involved aren't doing it for the money. Other things, like donating code, good detailed bug reports, donating documenations, etc. are probably much more effective.
If you do choose to donate money, I would highly recommend the FSF. I have tried to donate money to three free software projects and only the FSF routinely cash my checks. One project never cashed any of my checks and didn't even return email inquiries about them.
The FSF, on the other hand, has been very professional and seems to be the best organized. For example, the only "problem" that I had with them is that they sent me a new "GNU's bulletin" for each check that I sent them, which I considered a waste of money. One note to them fixed the "problem" completely.
If you do consider trying to contibuted non-code related things to any free software project, I would suggest sending them an email first asking them what would be most useful to them. If they say "money would be good", I would suggest sending them one small check and see if they cash it. If they do, send more checks and/or a larger checks. Remember, processing checks takes effort, and it isn't the "fun stuff" of the project. If a project doesn't cash your check or want your money, don't begrudge them. They are volunteers and are putting time/effort into the organization out of the goodness of their hearts.
Anyway, as I said in the beginning, contributions of your time/effort seem to be more effective than contributions of money.
SPF support for most open source mail servers can be found at libspf2.
$80 is a SMALL price to pay when you realize all the advanced features that are in this release of the new RedHat operating system! Things like SMP, RedHat 2.2 kernel, GNOME *1.0*, kde 1.1, APACHE... the world's best web server! Where else can you find all these features packed into one OS? ONLY with Red Hat! Other free Unixes like GNU/Linux can only HOPE to match these amazing features that Red Hat has to offer.
:-)
That posting was kind of weird: Makes some good points based on facts (e.g. the Apache reference), yet mixes up some other important facts.
1st. You don't pay $80 for the actual OS, which is NOT "the RedHat OS", it's a Linux distribution. If you pay for the retail package, you get a manual, customer support, and other goodies. You don't pay for Linux itself, it doesn't belong to RedHat, always remember that.
2nd. RedHat 2.2 Kernel? There's no such thing! It's the Linux kernel. Even if the distribution is called RedHat Linux, it doesn't mean "RedHat's Linux" but "RedHat's distribution of Linux". Keep that in mind.
3rd. Here's the worst misconception: GNU/Linux is presented as a competing product. Repeat: There's no RedHat OS, actually, RedHat Linux is GNU/Linux as well. And that's why you can download it for free with source code included: That's part of the GNU GPL License. RedHat isn't being nice because of that, they have to offer it for free like that, otherwise they couldn't offer it at all. The fact that they write and donate their own enhancements and code under the GPL, that's the nice thing, very nice indeed. It also means that their "amazing features" can be used by any other distribution.
I assume the poster mixed this up because of a misunderstanding of OSS and the Linux concept. It can't be compared to commercial proprietary software. It's a totally new thing for most of us, an exciting evolution of software, so we must learn that new concept to fully understand the free software phenomenon.
PS: I'm a happy user of both RedHat Linux 5.2 & Debian GNU/Linux
-- Eavy (: Linux Is Not UniX
They get you with the 0.00 deal. Seeing 0.00 as a price gets you excited and you feel that you must have it, because it's free. But $8.79 for a single cd seems a bit steep, compared to LinuxCentral or Cheapbytes, where I believe you get 2+ and it's cheaper. Nice deal, but not quite there yet. Say 5 bucks or so for shipping, and then we'll talk. :)
--
Scott Miga
Here's a listing of places that you can download an ISO of the RedHat 6.0 CD, courtesy of Ars Technica.
w ig.i386.iso9660.gz
. iso9660.gz
ftp://o su-linux.capital.ous.edu/pub/linux/redhat/iso/hed
ftp://pricie.ccl.kuleuven.ac.be/pub/rh 60.iso
ftp://ftp.s ervers.cx/pub/mirrors/linux/hedwig-27apr1999.i386
The same thing happened to me. I went back, turned cookies on and the shipping cost appeared. If your cookies are off that might be the problem.
Guys..check out CheapBytes The CD is only for $6.99 including UPS. SO what it cheaper ?
Seriously.
:)
I went to order the CD, and figured that since I didn't need it right away, priority mail, USA only (the last option on their shipping list) would be good enough for me.
Imagine my surprise when shipping proved to be $0.00.
I even saved the page to a file in my home directory as proof.
This is the page that says, "This is how much you will be charged, please enter your credit card number". If they charge more than what they say they will to your card, they'll get in rather serious trouble, don't you think?
I don't know if it's a mistake, or if they usually offer free shipping via the Postal Service (since it is cheaper/slower than other shipping methods), but that's what I got...and so help me if they charge me a penny more I'm really going to raise hell.
(Have you ever had to enter your credit card number so that you can be charged $0.00 to your account? That's a weird experience, but now I can honestly say I've done it.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
For those wondering about shipping, prices, I ordered Debian 2.0.2 a while ago from lsl.com. I believe the cd's themselves (3 of them) cost $2, but there was like $3 shipping, and $4 handling. I've never really understood the handling thing, but that's where they make their money. I guess it's for the service of mailing it or something.
He said, "You'll be able to tell your grandchildren that you helped assemble the first NT supercomputer," and I cringed.
$76.95 seems high? Really? For an operating system that competes against Windows NT Server? I don't suppose that you've priced that package lately. Oh, and check out the license...how many computers can you install that copy of NT on?
I bought RedHat 5.1 for $50. Ditto for 5.2. Yeah, it's a 50% increase in price, but I think that I'm still getting good value for my money.
$76.95 is the MOST that you'll pay for Red Hat. Or you can buy it for a couple of bucks from CheapBytes. Or you can download it for nothin' from that high speed ethernet connection at school.
Why do you suppose that RedHat charges what they do? Because it's not a slap-dash mix of whatever Linux-related stuff is out there. They do compatibility testing and fix what doesn't work. They paid the programmers to develop Gnome. And they pay a ton of money to have a call center to answer installation questions.
The thing that I find so remarkable is that they've added tremendous value to the product, yet you or I can download it for nothing on the Internet. With the source code. Nobody else does that.
And for what it's worth, pop over to your local computer store or out onto the 'net and see what Windows 98 full version sells for. Then decide who's charging too much money. As a hint...it ain't Red Hat!
I just recently upgraded to Red Hat 6.0 on two of my servers here at home, the other runs SuSE 6.0. Anyhow, the redhat upgrade fixed a problem I was having using IP-aliasing. They seem to have finally gotten the initial kernel config right, all I needed to do was choose the modules I needed, and away I went. They are using some special version of 2.2.5. They call it 2.2.5-15. Probably some internal bug fixes that are already in 2.2.6 and on. Anyhow, all works well, the upgrade went exceptionally smooth. everything still works under glibc 2.1! I was a bit reluctant to upgrade, but so far so good. Amazingly, nothing got clobbered in the upgrade. I especially liked the choice of shadowed passwords in the install. You no longer have to hunt this option down. Anyhow, good work Red Hat, though $80 is a bit too rich for my blood, this time I opted for a download(thank the machine for cable modems).
-Master Switch, one more element in the machine
There are enough other magazines out there putting free demos of games and the like with their paper product, why doesn't a magazine like Linux Journal do the same?
I buy CMJ New Music every month just for the included mix CD; I'd do the same for something like Linux Journal.
Thoughts?
--The more you know, the less you know.
Here's a section from the ''GNU Manifesto'' by Richard M. Stallman:
At RedHat Software, Inc. there are (according to my latest information from #gimp
People who receive a gratis CD with free software from a developer could send him the money saved, to encourage him to write more free software or manuals.
Most programmers and technical writers can contribute by writing software and documentation for GNU. That is the most direct way to contribute to the GNU Project. But if you can't or don't contribute in that way, please donate money to the FSF instead.
To donate to the FSF, simply mail a check to:
Free Software Foundation
59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111
USA
I also believe that the $76.95 version comes with SSL (RSA, which is copywrited commercial software. That the downloaded version or the cheap cd's don't come with.. though there always is wa--z
I notice a lot of symbolic links in the distro directories, and was wondering if there's a good method to raping it all, maintaining the symbolic links, and packing it for a CD burn.
mirror scripts.
In the case of RedHat, there's a mirror perl script that's used to make a local copy from either the distribution server (assuming you can stand the lack of speed) or one of the mirrors. It's not too hard to set up, and if memory serves, there's a decent HOWTO about burning a bootable CD from your mirror files.
There are ISO images out there, but all of them seem to be on slow servers, alas. Nobody's managed to get an ISO up on a speedy server like wcarchive.
Debian alludes to being able to do much the same thing, but it was easier for me to just snare the ISO.
I hear tell that Mandrake also distributes official ISO images.
Histoically, Caldera has done the same thing, but so far I haven't come across the actual files for the most recent release (but then, I'm not looking too hard).
No sign of ISOs for SuSE or Stampede.
I wouldn't know squat about TurboLinux because... well, does anyone even use TL?
It's also noteworthy that one almost never finds ISO images of the various BSDs. Seems like the BSD folks are image-averse, preferring (like Debian) to guide folks towards mirroring and (unlike Debian) not distributing an ISO at all. This is vaguely understandable given the size of the thing.
My last (and only, period) experience with LSL was rather disapointing. I picked up a 3-CD set of RH 5.2 (the binary distro, all the contribs, and their 'Catalyst', what they advertised as demo and trial versions of commercial software).
While the binary distro CD was fine, the other two were next to worthless. The contribs CD obviously had not been reviewed at all. Both KDE and Gnome had mixed RPMS for different versions--making them useless. The 'Catalyst' had a very small handful of trial versions, but was almost entirely HTML files with broken links, which seemed to have just been saved off different vendors web sites.
Needless to say, I'll not be throwing away any more money with LSL. Next paycheck, I'm trying out Cheapbytes (their mondo pack looks good =)
Vrallis
I noticed one key point, however minor, that might make the difference between LSL's version and the stock RH 6.0 offered by CheapBytes, LinuxMall, and even Red Hat themselves. They include the 2.2.7 kernel, a hair up from the bundled kernel. Additionally, they include a trial of some back-up software and KDE and GNOME.
I'd be very interested to hear from people whether this minor change makes a big difference, whether for good or for bad. RPM's can be tied to specific kernels and/or distributions, and Red Hat's install procedure works almost entirely with RPM, if memory serves correctly.
Lastly, I wonder how intuitive KDE and GNOME might be. I've seen mixed reaction to LSL's handling of it in prior distributions.
Personally, I'm sticking with CheapBytes... although I could download it over my cable modem (provided I had enough free HD space), they gave me excellent service when I bought from them last.
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