On Fri, 2004-06-04 at 08:07, Austin Godber wrote:
> So, I have recently checked out the pricing for various Linux 
> distributions ... desktop versions and Enterprise versions.  I am left 
> with the big question of ... what does the $1000 buy you between the 
> free Debian Stable and say SuSe Linux Enterprise Server or RH Enterprise 
> Linux AS?
> 	I know distros have some of their own use level applications and  make 
> some patches to the kernel.  But even as far as the kernel patches go, 
> they seem to be including community material and not necessarily changes 
> they have made themselves.  And for that matter, if they did make 
> changes wouldn't they have to be released under the GPL?  Is the patched 
> kernel source available for these "Enterprise" systems?
----
I don't know about $1000 - I think RHEL AS 3.0 is available for $299 and
update service is like $90 per year. This includes their 'support' (not
pretending that their support is invaluable).

There probably isn't that much difference between RHEL and Debian Stable
- they are both conservative as opposed to edge or bleeding edge.

RH does indeed patch the kernel and many other packages as well and all
of their patches are indeed available as source - though most likely,
their patches have been derived from the individual projects or kernel
patches themselves and 'back-ported.' Specifically, all RHEL product is
available as source.

The advantages to using an 'Enterprise' version seem to me to be
largely:
- support for larger iron, big-mem kernels, smp, etc.
- support in general
- base of commercial software compatibility

The disadvantage (probably relates to all 'stable' distributions):
- reliance upon older versions of packages (with RHEL, openldap comes
immediately to mind)

Craig

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