Red Hat Makes Enterprise Move

Subscription-based? Annual? Per-server license? Does this make Red Hat the Microsoft of Linux? The folks on Slashdot (www.slashdot.org) think so; they have been accusing Red Hat of this for some time. (Note to self: Pay better attention to the prognosticators on Slashdot.)

If you want to get Red Hat Linux now, you'll need to move to the rapidly evolving Fedora. But Red Hat is no longer guaranteeing its stability. Many of the packages Red Hat maintained in its distribution have been turned over to the open-source community, and the company will continue to pull from Fedora for its Enterprise Linux line. Red Hat will maintain the foundation packages necessary for its commercial line and will give back to the open-source software community via Fedora. But don't consider Red Hat Network as part of Fedora; the former is for paying customers only.

This is good news for the enterprise. It will mean greater stability and maturity, full support and better ISV (independent software vendor) buy-in. Red Hat Network is expanding and could be deployed as a method of managing all Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems--for patching, asset tracking and distribution of new packages and custom software/scripts.

This is just what the enterprise has been asking for. ISVs had trouble keeping up with the rapid release cycles, but now they'll be able to provide better support for their Linux products, and customers won't worry so much about breaking things when deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Indeed, Red Hat has grown up and left the sandbox.Post a comment or question on this story.