[olug] Linux updates

[William E. Kempf]

Jay Swackhamer said:
> on RHN's up2date,
>
> coming soon, you will either have to subscribe at $60.00
> per year or there will be a survey that you have to fill out
> every so many days or your account will expire, and
> you will only be able to register one system for free per valid email
> address........

More than coming soon.  I just got a nasty gram from them telling me I
hadn't done either, and was removed.

> Previously/currently you can register multiple systems to your
> login, but you can only update one at a time, switching which
> system has the entitlement to be updated........
>
> I can understand why they are charging for the updates, but I would
> think that they would have come up with a modest yearly fee, say $5.00
> to continue to use the single-system-update method now......
>
> but at $60.00 per year, they will probably lose more users
> than they gain.....
>
> since you could just get the critical updates on your own and
> then download the ISO's and do a full upgrade when the releases
> come out.......

Or simply go the apt-rpm route.  There's repositories that seem to keep
well up to date with what's available via up2date.  And it's free.

> unless there comes a time when the ISO's have to be purchased, then
> people will switch distributions.......

Which is already starting to happen for various other reasons.

-- 
William E. Kempf