Red Hat End-of-Life

[Randy Edwards]

    I've been doing some reading on RH's announcement that it'll only produce 
security updates for its versions of Linux for a year and will then 
End-of-Life them.  I was wondering if anyone had comments on how this will 
impact them; will it?

    I worry about what this will do to folks on the "low end" of the 
Linux-using spectrum.  People with half-decent IT staffs will either pay the 
costs or work out manual update procedures.  But what's the mom-and-pop-type 
shops to do?

    Package management has always amazed me with Red Hat, since I come from a 
Debian background (to me, a RH system isn't complete until you install apt-get 
for RPM:-).  I always assumed that the RHN would do magical things if you 
ponied up the money, and I similarly assumed that RH would have to move 
towards a longer release cycle and more stability in its product line.  This 
move seems to be counter to that idea.

    Thoughts, opinions, predictions of its impact?

-- 
  Regards, | "A contribution by Microsoft Corporation to South Carolina's
  .        | Republican Party during the 1998 campaign preceded a decision
  Randy    | by the state's GOP attorney general to withdraw from an
           | antitrust suit against the computer software giant."
           | Source: API, 24 December 1998