New Linux Support Policies are Ominous

New Linux Support Policies are Ominous
Jon Lasser, 2003-02-12

Red Hat and Mandrake are cutting support for older versions of their Linux distributions... The results will be a security nightmare for the Internet.

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-13
Anonymous (1 replies)

hehe - haven't the linux holy fanatics been complaining about MS's support policy's for years? (god forbid they upgrade to 2000/XP and soon 2003, they like complaining about how poorly written Windows 3.1 and 95/98/NT is).

Geez, funny how these things come back to bite you guys in the ass. 12 mon...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-13
Anonymous

I was just going to say the exact same thing. LOL. ...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-13
Surreal (1 replies)

My initial reaction to the Redhat EOL (end of life) announcement was that it was time to look at Suse or someone else for production Linux servers. Fortunately, the massive, vocal reaction from their users has Redhat searching for more acceptable solutions*.

I suggested extending up2date's "--sr...

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Expensive! 2003-02-14
Anonymous

I might be attracted to Advanced Server if the price were reasonable. The company I work for can't afford to shell out $800 per year per server, though.
...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-14
blacklight

As a Linux fan and SusE Linux consumer, I'd say that those Linux distribution companies companies that don't take ownership of their products must be treated like every vendor who has proved to be unreliable: dump them.

I find the alternative of providing support oursekves unpalatable: (1) We end...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-15
Anonymous

Red Hat? Does that run on Linux???...

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But we ARE paying! 2003-02-15
Anonymous

I really do not understand where Redhat are coming from. All our servers are subscribed to Redhat Network, so while we downloaded the distribution for free, we actually ARE paying for support and when they cut support they lose that revenue. I am shocked they expect everyone running servers to swi...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-15
Anonymous

screw those RPM-based distros... if you're a SysAdmin you *must* run Debian.
...

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Two ends of the possible support policy 2003-02-15
PDL

I think Redhat has staked out the short end -- pay $800 per server per year, or EOL comes in 12 months (or less, for the installed base). The other end, of course, is indefinite support for one low payment (or none, if you download the distribution for free). Obviously, there's a problem for the v...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-16
debian user (3 replies)

I'm not a very experienced Debian user but :
- unless you have a very specific configuration apt-get dist-upgrade is painless (at least for 2.2 to 3.0), exists for years and don't have any equivalent in other distributions.
- distribution upgrades in debian doesn't occur so frequently, nothing co...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-17
Anonymous (1 replies)

"have you ever applied a M$ security patch without fearing the terrible blue screen of death ?"

uhh... I apply MS patches to my servers and workstations every time they are released, never had a bluescreen. In fact, I have never seen a bluescreen in W2K/XP - EVER. That is an old NT thing....

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-19
Anonymous

Talk to some other people... BSOD's are still common on M$ products, no matter what you are running. Do a little homework and you find that some of M$'s updates actually caused more problems after fixing one....

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-18
Anonymous

Well,
Just in support Debian GNU/Linux were security is in focus.
Isn't it, Jonathan?

Best
PS. Good article anyway...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-18
Anonymous

Well, your pre-stable version of Debian isn't going to get security patches from the Debian team for very long at all after a new stable release appears.

Not that anyone should really expect more from a volunteer effort -- I think what they do now is amazing, and use Debian every day. I would ne...

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That's what Open Source is about. You can fill this hole. 2003-02-18
Anonymous

I just wanna say. If you think that's something to be done, just do it yourself. I mean, any company (probably a 1 person or 2 person one) can continue the job. Patches are there, and the code. It is just necessary to run a server with a modified up2date that points to this other server.

Open Sou...

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Debian does offer proper support 2003-02-18
Javier

>I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the Debian 2.1
>support debacle. On September 14th, 2000, the Debian project
>announced that, as of September 30th, support for Debian 2.1
>would be dropped entirely.

I'm afraid you fail to mention that the period was extended please read:
http:...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-18
Anonymous (1 replies)

First of all, I am NOT RH user. Of course, I began with MDK, then RH, but, still unsatisfied, finally migrated to Debian. There is one thing I believe you are missing: no company is a charity fund! If they think supporting older releases is not good, not profitable, it's just it. We cannot FORCE the...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-19
E.

I was kind of depressed to hear that my venerable RH 6.2 setup will no longer be supported. It's been the most stable OS/Configuration that I've ever used and I don't even remember half of the weird little tweaks that I've done to it to get it to work the way I want it to. Now I have to recreate my ...

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b o o h o o 2003-02-18
Anonymous (1 replies)

Why redhat anyways? distributions are for lazy twats ... build your own with up to the minute security fixes if security is such a big deal. Instead of hiring some dimwit to update packages, hire someone qualified to mantain secure computer systems....

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b o o h o o 2003-02-19
Anonymous

uhh sorry but I have a life (unlike you) and don't have the entire day to sit in my mommy's bastment and code my own disto. What you call lazy, we call "working for a living". You may want to try it some day.

P.S. Do you have a girlfriend/ever kissed a girl before?...

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-18
S. Cayona

There is always the option to download the source codes and roll your own....

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New Linux Support Policies are Ominous 2003-02-19
Anonymous

LOL. If people cannot plan an upgrade, maybe they are in a wrong field. Someone so inept to say that upgrading Debian from an old release to a new, well tested one is difficult or a really bad idea should switch to using the Great win2k servers and stop posting FUD.

The point of free software is ...

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