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Rip and Run

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by jm 1 view

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I'm taking the bait. I started a database project last week, Red Hat Linux, running Oracle. First thing back from the RHCE: You'll have to pay $350 if you want to get the Red Hat binaries; otherwise we can try to build the source at $XXX per hour. LOL. I already have a headache. I have no idea why I'm doing this. How much more will I have to spend spend spend for this "free" operating system?

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by stress junkie

If you are savvy about Unix then you can get a great distribution for free. Absolutely no exceptions free. There are a lot of comments here at TR on this subject so I'll just mention the slackware distribution at www.slackware.com and the debian distribution at www.debian.org.

If you are not savvy about Unix then you should expect and plan for a learning period.

Red Hat and other distros that charge give you value for your money. They put in a lot of time making sure that all of the software that comes with the distro will work. They also do a lot of work in the area of using the latest kernel. They also do a lot in the area of maintenance. The fact that they use the latest kernels and supporting software means that their software will require the most patches over time.

Most of the absolutely free distributions use older versions of the Linux kernel and supporting software. They often do not require as many patches over time as the leading edge distros. They also often lack slick system administration tools.

Good luck.

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