[ale] Red Hat 9.0

Fulton Green ale at FultonGreen.com
Mon Mar 24 15:37:31 EST 2003


For real.  They've actually been touting the "early ISO access" as a
feature of their "Red Hat Network" service for several months now; they're
just now getting around to doing it (for releases, anyway).

I don't know if this means that you wouldn't be able to get the individual
packages and other files necessary at install-time from FTP.RedHat.com
prior to April 7.  I would suspect that you'd still be able to get those
individual files, just not in ISO form.

And, obviously, ISOs will be available after the 7th from RH, bandwidth
issues notwithstanding.

What remains a thorny question is whether or not other entities such as
CheapBytes would be allowed to distribute or sell RH9 ISOs
("de-trademarked" if necessary a la' CheapBytes's "Pink Tie") prior to the
7th.

This is just one more way RH is "shaking down" us individual users for
subscription revenue.  As long as they don't violate the spirit of the GPL
(which is why I think they'll make individual packages available on the
31st, when subscribers will have early ISO access), I don't have a problem
with it.

FWIW, I think OpenBSD has a restriction that one can't create ISOs of its
distro for mass dissemination, even though OpenBSD doesn't provide ISOs
itself.  OpenBSD does, of course, sell CDs of its distro, and also
provides the necesary files for installation, which you are welcome to
place on a CD-ROM (but not sell or redistribute in ISO form).  At least I
*think* that's the spirt of OpenBSD's restrictions.

On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 03:10:14PM -0500, John Wells wrote:
> Damn...is this for real, or some twisted April Fool's joke?
> 
> http://www.redhat.com/mktg/rh9iso/
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