[PLUG] up2date - is it worth it? (was: Reviews of RedHat 8.0 - is it worth $150?)

Percival, Ray Ray.Percival at summit.fiserv.com
Fri Oct 18 22:35:40 UTC 2002


This may start a flame war and I can't say that I would be sad about that. 

But apt is free, updated quickly, and fast. :)Really I can't think of a reason to use RH for anything anymore.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Thoen 
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 3:30 PM
To: plug at lists.pdxlinux.org
Subject: [PLUG] up2date - is it worth it? (was: Reviews of RedHat 8.0 -
is it worth $150?)


Richard Langis wrote:
> 
> Matt Alexander wrote:
> >
> > Hmm...  RedHat's up2date utility is pretty easy...
> 
> Never used it.
> 
> Although I had heard that you have to pay a monthly fee to become a
> 'preferred' customer, so that you are guaranteed updates *when* they
> come out.  So if you don't pay, and the servers are busy, you are SOL.
> 
> They may have changed that policy since I heard that.  I don't know.
> 

Well, "up2date -u" to update everything in one go sounds pretty
easy, but it failed for me because some configuration file was
changed outside of rpm's control. Must have been the custom
install I did of PHP a while ago. Anyway, I put the job off until
later when I had more time to deal with that. Then RedHat 8.0 was
released the next day. Freeloaders like me were then barred from
using up2date due to "high volume" on the Red Hat site. You need
to pay them $60 per system to get preferred treatment. I still
can't get in today. So from my experience, don't depend on
up2date to keep your system safe from hackers. By the time you
finally get your update, the robo hackers will have screwed,
blued, and tattooed your machine to their infinite delight.

OTH, if you MUST stay on top of these things for commercial
reasons, then expect to pay for the convenience. I don't like it,
but I don't expect RedHat to do everything for free. But at least
if you haven't paid for the service, you can get an instant
refund!

- Bill Thoen

_______________________________________________
PLUG mailing list
PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug






More information about the PLUG mailing list