Purchasing RHEL AS 4

[Ray Van Dolson]

On Thu, Sep 06, 2007 at 09:24:23AM -0700, Justin Zygmont wrote:
> Barry Brimer wrote:
> >>Hi,
> >>    I would appreciate if someone could tell me whats the cheapest way 
> >>to buy RHEL AS 4 without subscribing for any support.Thanks for any help.
> >
> >Red Hat does not sell RHEL without support.  I recommend that you look 
> >into CentOS <http://www.centos.org> It is rebuilt from RHEL sources, and 
> >is very high quality.  Simply put, it is the closest to RHEL as you can 
> >get without paying for it.  The CentOS team rebuilds all updates 
> >provided by Red Hat, which in short means that CentOS releases are 
> >supported for 7 years, just like RHEL.
> >
> >Hope this helps.
> >
> >Barry
> 
> 
> You don't want centos if you know whats good for you, its just a hack, 
> they have nothing to do with redhat.  If you want redhat linux, then use 
> redhat linux and you'll have less problems later.  You can get RHEL with 
> the basic subscription or just take the 30 day trial for free, you can 
> still use it, just no updates.
> 

CentOS is far from a hack.  It's basically a RH clone built from Red
Hat's own SRPM files with the copyrights removed.  A lot of development
and bug finding finds its way upstream to RH from CentOS, so there's
certainly a benefit to the community overall.

There are many reasons to choose RH over CentOS, but CentOS being a
"hack" is not one of them.

Ray