Purchasing RHEL AS 4

[Barry Brimer]

Quoting Justin Zygmont <justin at cityfone.net>:

> 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.

I would not recommend running a system on any OS that did not include any
updates, no matter who makes it.  CentOS rebuilds the RHEL SRPMS and removes
trademarks according to Red Hat's redistribution terms.  Their goal is to be as
close to 100% binary compatible with RHEL as possible.  Personally, I think they
have done an excellent job.

I have been using Red Hat Linux since 1997, and CentOS since 2005, with the
release of CentOS 4.  I have not had a single problem with CentOS that did not
also occur in RHEL. YMMV.

Barry