Computer operating system

Red Hat will discontinue support for Red Hat Linux (RHL) after April 2004. Their supported solution is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL, http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel), a pay-for service option that starts at $179 per year. Fedora (http://fedora.redhat.com) is a "free" option based on Red Hat Linux that is suggested for the "developer or highly technical enthusiast using Linux in non-critical computing environments." A comparison matrix is at: http://www.redhat.com/software/rhelorfedora.

RHL has been well-supported with fast upgrades and security patches. It was reliable enough for astronomical research and the price was right. With support from a systems administrator, it was possible to use this operating system without paying any license or support fees to Red Hat.

By removing RHL and presenting only RHEL and Fedora, we must make the choice between a fully supported option (RHEL), a cutting-edge option (Fedora), or chosing something different.

The correct choice in the long term is not obvious. The intent seems to be for Fedora to provide an R&D platform for RHEL. If that turns out to be the case, it's unlikely that Fedora would be a good choice for Magellan unless we're willing to put in the effort to test and cut customized Magellan versions. If, however, Fedora turns into something closer to RHL, with usable and stable systems, then a RHEL user may be left behind.

The Fedora Legacy Project http://www.fedoralegacy.org/ makes Fedora more interesting as will provide update RPMs for Fedora on a 1-2-3 and out basis - i.e. support for Fedora Core 1 will cease when Fedora Core 3 appears, giving an expected lifetime of about 1.5 years per release. After official Redhat support ends in April the Fedora Legacy Project will take over support of Redhat 9 until at least the end of 1995, removing any need to rush into a decision.

acl 2005-10-20 <au AT ociw DOT edu>