Red Hat Enterprise Linux software sources?

[alex at crackpot.org]

Quoting Alan Dayley <alandd at consultpros.com>:

> I want to keep this system updated and install needed software in as
> automated a fashion as possible.  Are there well maintained, no cost,
> community repositories for RHEL that I can point to for installation of
> software via yum or another such tool?

Usually, you'd get a 1 year subscription to Red Hat Network with a new  
install.  After you register the system (up2date --register), you can  
do updates and install packages from the RHEL repositories.

If you don't have budget for continued renewals, I'd say just forget  
RHEL and use CentOS.  Better to switch now before you've got anything  
running on the machine, rather than have your subscription run out,  
and you've not no money to buy the renewal, and it's in production so  
you can't take it down, so the box just never gets updated again...

I'm not sure what's in that 'Application Stack', but PHP, Apache,  
Perl, Python, etc. are all available from Red Hat.  You can search for  
packages with 'up2date --whatprovides' or on the web at  
http://rhn.redhat.com (you'll need a login, same as the one used to  
register the system).  up2date is no apt, but it's pretty good.

My personal preference is still for Debian-based distros.  But, in Red  
Hat's defense, they are one of the very top contributors to the linux  
kernel and other projects.  So, your money does actually support free  
software when you pay them.  We have to use RHEL at work, and that's  
the consolation in my mind when I see all that budget going to  
subscription renewals and not to more boxes, RAM, etc.

alex