I found it odd too. "Update now to avoid..." uh...upgrade to what? If RH8 is EOL'd 12/31/03, to what can I upgrade "now" to avoid obsolescence? This is a bad idea to say the least. I'd be interested to see who came up with this. Hmmm...Ransome Love has been quiet. Did RH perhaps hire him as an Marketing Consultant? <eg>
<<JAV>> ---------- Original Message ----------- From: Ed Wilts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 13:42:23 -0600 Subject: Re: Anyone on product life span? > On Mon, Dec 23, 2002 at 07:49:47PM +0100, Leonard den Ottolander wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I am a little surprised that I haven't heard anyone on the new "product end > > of life" policy. Maybe I haven't been looking to well though... > > There's only bit a bit of grumbling on the list, but then nothing has > really happened yet - just the announcement. A few people I've > talked to said that they really expect Red Hat to back off on this > because it's too stupid to be believable. > > For a business user, let's look at the alternatives: > > 1. Any release you put up today will be obsolete in a year - not > even security releases will be available. This means that business users > either have to upgrade to 8.1 or manually update their systems. > > 2. Microsoft is still releasing security updates for a release > that's over 2 years old. Red Hat wants to cut there's back to a > year. The press will not be kind in early 2004 when Red Hat Linux > systems start getting hacked. Managers will start looking at > Microsoft as an alternative to Linux. Yuck. > 3. Those of us with RHN subscriptions will be cancelling them by > the end of 2003. After all, they're going to be useless if we can't > get updates anyway. > 4. Many Red Hat customers still run older versions of the OS. At > our office, we've still got a bunch of 6.2 systems and some 7.x. > None are > 8.0 nor are they planned to be upgraded to 8.0. > 5. Red Hat Linux Advanced Server is an option, but it's very > pricey. It's certainly not budgeted for us for anytime next year and > the budget cycle is already frozen through early 2004. That means > that we'll be forced to upgrade our systems manually. Red Hat will > get *less* revenue, not more, as we cancel our RHN subscriptions and > not buy AS licenses. > > Red Hat must (IMHO) offer a "prior-release" service that we can > purchase. We simply will not be updating 10+ servers annually - we > don't have the manpower to do that and Linux won't survive here if > they're penetrated or become too labor-intensive to manage. > > > > We have also taken this opportunity to clarify the end of life dates for > > > errata support for our current products: > > > > > > Red Hat Linux 8.0 (Psyche) December 31, 2003 > > > Red Hat Linux 7.3 (Valhalla) December 31, 2003 > > > Red Hat Linux 7.2 (Enigma) December 31, 2003 > > > Red Hat Linux 7.1 (Seawolf) December 31, 2003 > > > Red Hat Linux 7.0 (Guinness) March 31, 2003 > > > Red Hat Linux 6.2 (Zoot) March 31, 2003 > > > > Am I correct in my assumption that this means that Red Hat effectively > > reduces the life span of it's "base" OS releases to 12 months? > > Any thoughts appreciated. > > You're correct. Any release you put up today will be obsolete in 12 > months. With so many remotely-exploitable holes in Linux (typically > patched quickly) an unprotected but current (as of Dec 31, 2003) 8.0 > system left on the Internet will likely be penetrated before we're > done shovelling for the winter. > > I support Red Hat in eliminating 6.2 through 7.2. Eliminating > support for 7.3 is *way* too premature. There's nothing out there > later than > 8.0 and they've already put a 12-month EOL on it. It's asinine. We're > not all running home desktops here! A 6.2 or 7.0 systems today will > need to be upgraded at least twice in the next calendar year just to > be current. Once before the end of March, and then again before the > end of December. > > .../Ed > -- > Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program > > -- > redhat-list mailing list > unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list ------- End of Original Message ------- -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
