Red Hat & CentOS Partner Up

[[Knuckles]]

I think this is a very nice move. RHEL benefits from having CentOS: people can develop software and acquire skills without having to pay for the real thing -- and yes this might cut the 1% that would pay for the real thing, but the other 99% would move on to ubuntu or debian so it's a win for them.

We had a research project with Red Hat and had a test machine with RHEL. The project ended, and our support ended, and we just added the CentOS repositories and moved on (it's a test machine anyway). It was a great way to continue using the environment we already had, and if we ever need to go back we just have to reverse the transition.

If CentOS hadn't existed we would probably be back to ubuntu, as in our earlier test machines (still running 10.04 LTS).

[leif81]

I think the slow CentOS 6 release may have had something to do with this. Many users began leaving for Scientific Linux and Ubuntu. It's one thing for RHEL to lose potential customers to CentOS, but losing them to Ubuntu is a totally different thing. I presume their intentions are to make CentOS a first class gateway drug to RHEL. Nothing wrong with that. Those who don't need enterprise support just keep sailing with a more polished CentOS product.

[stiiixy]

And no, CentOS isn't upgradable to RHEL, you need to do a clean install.

All your data is still there in compatible formats, though. The exact same version of packages are used, so there should be virtually no dfficulty in applying a RHEL environment.

[GreatEmerald]

All your data is still there in compatible formats, though. The exact same version of packages are used, so there should be virtually no dfficulty in applying a RHEL environment.

Package versions differ between RHEL and CentOS (the example in the FAQ being PHP).

[stiiixy]

Package versions differ between RHEL and CentOS (the example in the FAQ being PHP).

To what degree? Is it just a time latency thing between releases? Do they both handle config files differantly?

[GreatEmerald]

To what degree? Is it just a time latency thing between releases? Do they both handle config files differantly?

I don't know for certain since I never used either, but I'd think it is a latency thing, as in CentOS updates things more aggressively than RHEL (who have to go through their testing and certification first).

[stiiixy]

I don't know for certain since I never used either, but I'd think it is a latency thing, as in CentOS updates things more aggressively than RHEL (who have to go through their testing and certification first).

I was under the impression CentOS is nothing more than RHEL rebranded source code with the RHEL branding removed.

Well, that and a few other bits exclusive to RH removed. Guess I better find out if I'm to host my own Kolab.