[linux] Re: Red Hat Enterprise Linux

[Josh Larios]

I wrote:

> If you need RHEL 5 immediately, you may be able to purchase it at an
> academic discount directly from Red Hat:

It's been pointed out to me that it is possible to install RHEL5 without
activating it against an update server, and that the new "installation
number" business I was worrying about may be a red herring. Given that the
bits are available and the UW community is entitled to them for free,
advising that you purchase a subscription from Red Hat in order to be an
early adopter is probably bad advice. So if you're interested in giving
RHEL5 a trial before updates are available through the campus RHN server,
drop me a line off-list. I should have something you can try by the end of
the day.

Do note, however, that you won't be able to get any updates until the
campus satellite can provide them, and that you might have to install some
packages by hand that would have been installed automatically if an
installation number had been used. So just to be safe, this should be
treated as an evaluation service, not necessarily suitable for production
needs.

Yours,

--
Josh Larios
Unix Consultant, Customer Services
Computing & Communications
University of Washington