[Brahms-soft-l] life after redhat

Hello.  As some of you might know, RedHat is changing their business 
course (to make money!!!)  (I suppose that there is nothing wrong with 
that.) But, it is (or will be) making a very BIG mess not only in BNL 
but also in entire DOE (and probably entire physics or scientific 
community).  The reason for this mess is that RedHat will stop 
supporting many of their products (up to RH9) at the end of April 2004.  
There will be no RH after 9, and they will force their customers to a 
subscription based service with quite high price tag.  (The cheapest 
price is  about $180 per year per computer!!!)  The problem we (or at 
least people in DOE labs) have is that we are obligated to update our 
security patches as they arrive.  For RedHat machine in BNL, this was 
accomplished by RedHat network, which is a paid service (small price) 
with very easy web interface.  (And, we have never paid for  use of 
RedHat linux OS.)  But, with the subscription based system, we have to 
pay to use it as well as its support for patches. As a result, there was 
a meeting in BNL physics department (not RCF) (there will be more 
meeting for physics as well as entire BNL).  So, here is the first 
report from that meeting.


1.  None of us is interested in paying $180 (at least) per year per 
machines to use linux.  (I thought that this is the reason physics 
community moved away from VMS.)
2.  Negotiation between RedHat and DOE (not just BNL) is under way.  The 
price might get lower for DOE lab.  (not necessary for other people.  
This might be a problem if people want to use exactly the same system at 
your own home/institution.)  (Rumor:  RedHat wants to have $1.3M from 
DOE for assumed 25k linux machines($52 per pc). )
3.  Not many people are eager to change from RedHat to other linux.
4.  What are other alternative?  There are many other linux out there 
without subscription fees:  Debian, Suse, Mandrake, Fedora, etc...   (I 
can hear very loud cheer for certain one from the other side of Atlantic 
ocean :) ).   Here is the brief description for some of them I know.
    a.  Debian:  Pros---truly community linux (no business association). 
Linux hard core favorite.   Cons--- support for third party software 
(objectivity and oracle???  It does not matter to us, but it matters to 
other collaboration in RCF.)
    b.  Suse or Mandrake ---  business association (like old RedHat).  
Suse has large support from corporation. 
    c.  Fedora --- community supported RedHat.  This is a sort of like 
Debian.  (Debian wanabee???)   Basically the same as the current and/or 
future RedHat.  Cons--- Since it has just started, its future is very 
unknown.
    d.  Fermi or CERN linux ---  Here, it gets interesting.  Some big 
Labs are thinking (or already making) own version of linux. If you are 
interested in Fermi linux, go to 
http://www-oss.fnal.gov/projects/fermilinux/  .  If you are interested 
in CERN linux, go to http://linux.web.cern.ch/linux/  . (Note:  Both of 
them are based on RedHat.   It is unclear now what they will do in the 
future.)


Anyway,  I will report as I hear more information (or rumors :) ). If 
you have a particular favorite, you should make sure your words are 
heard by the people in the higher-up of a food chain at every big/small 
lab. (well particularly at a big lab).  Your opinion might actually 
count.  (Ok, That is not entirely true.  I don't think RCF is switching 
to Mac OSX no matter what you say in the near future.  Sorry, Apple 
fans!!!) 


Hiro


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