ES or Fedora

[Aleksandar Milivojevic]

Quoting Robert Canary <rwcanary at ocdirect.net>:

> Weeeeellll, these will be production systems.  I have been doing Linux
> and Unix flavors long enough I really don't need the "Hand-Holdng" tech
> support.  However, I'm interested in having a support network for
> updating RPMS when there is security issues.  And I do like being able
> add a package via up2date and it also collecting the dependant RPMs as
> well.

A free RHEL clone such as CentOS might be a good fit than.  It will  
provide you with updates via yum as long as Red Hat is providing  
updates for corresponding RHEL release.  You'll also be able to  
install packages and dependencies in the same way.  I've never  
attempted to use up2date with CentOS.  However, i thing I read  
somewhere that it should be functional.  However it will simply use  
yum as backend (so you might as well use it directly).  You might want  
to recheck that.

However, there are still other things to consider that may sway you  
towards buying RHEL.

There'll be delay (sometimes only hours, sometimes a day or two)  
between Red Hat fixing a security related bug and releasing the  
update, and that same update being available on the CentOS (and other  
clones).  The clones have to wait until Red Hat releases the update,  
than rebuild the RPM package.  Depending on the environment this might  
or might not be an issue.

Maybe you don't need "hand-holding" tech support.  However, if you run  
some propriatory software on the server, that vendor might  
(rightfully) tell you your system is not supported because it doesn't  
have RHEL sticker on it.  And refuse to troubleshoot something that is  
bug in their software.  They tested and support their application  
against binary that Red Hat provides.  Not somebody else.  Even it the  
binary is built from exactly the same source.

If there's some obscure bug in the system (for example in kernel or in  
one of applications) you might get better support if you are running  
"the real thing".  If running CentOS, Red Hat can (again completely  
rightfully) tell you "well, yeah, we made that SRPM that somebody else  
compiled into binary RPM, but it's not really in our domain to  
troubleshoot it becasue it's not our binary and we are not going to  
troubleshoot something that somebody else might have changed even if  
they claim they haven't changed it".  Usually they'll fix bugs even if  
you run into them on the clones (if there's bug in the clone, there's  
exactly the same bug in the original too).  However, if it's something  
obscure that affects only you, it's not going to be exactly high  
priority for them to fix it (they have other people running "the real  
thing" lined up for fixes).

> Are those thing still available with ES?  What exactly are the
> implication of an annaul subscription?  This thing isn't going to
> shutdown if I don't resubscribe will it?

It's not going to shutdown itself.  But access to updates will be  
terminated.  I'd check that license agreement too.  Maybe it says you  
are supposed to shut it down ;-)