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RedHat Server licensing / purchasing

  • 20-10-2010 1:00am
    #1
    rolion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,362 ✭✭✭


    Hi,

    Looking for a clarification...i want to purchase RedHat Server for a school.

    1.Do i have to buy the OS as a software package (aka Microsoft Server Standard 2008) or is a free download !?

    2.Do i have to buy the Server support as well OR only the support !?

    3.There are versions like Basic,Standard and so on.Mostly,Standard will do it for a school with 50 users and around 25 desktops running Ubuntu ?

    Thanks in advance...


Comments

  • #2
    pvik00
    Closed Accounts Posts: 161 ✭✭pvik00


    When you pay for Red Hat as a server product, you pay for support and updates. This is important if you're using it as computing platform in a business critical environment.

    Commercial Red Hat is built from free, open source software, the license most packages come with requires Red Hat to make the sources available for everyone. You can even download the binary distribution free from their website after registration, but you won't get the support and the updates until you buy them.

    In a non-business critical environment you don't really need all this. CentOS is a community build from the very sources Red Hat makes available and it has free updates and exactly the same structure and functionality as Red Hat's enterprise distribution. The only difference is that the community build has the commercial branding removed.
    http://centos.org

    You should not pay for something you can get legally for free.

    For the size of your requirements you don't need to worry about capacity on the OS side. In the Linux world you'll see much less of those artificial limits and boundaries. Just make sure you run a 64-bit OS on 64-bit HW and you can scale with your requirements.


  • #3
    niallb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,755 ✭✭✭niallb


    I see you say "25 desktops running ubuntu".
    Why would you not use ubuntu server ?
    Other useful options would be edubuntu, or zentyal which is also ubuntu based, and well worth a look, with a web based configuration system.

    It would also allow for the skills built up by whoever's dealing with the machines day to day to be more directly relevant to the server if you need them to help out.

    There are some basic differences in setup between redhat based and debian based systems. If you're used to both, you don't even notice them, but if you've limited experience of one, it can be a temporary showstopper.

    CentOS is a good alternative to Redhat here, but make sure you have a good reason for wanting redhat in the first place. Ubuntu server also has commercial support available (Canonical) if that's an issue.

    Personally, I'd think it'd be a big whack out of a school's budget that really doesn't need to be spent. It's also not going to give you any useful cover for the ubuntu machines.


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