updates

Jef Spaleta jspaleta at princeton.edu
Sun Aug 3 15:49:24 UTC 2003


Joel Young wrote:
>if I understand Michael right, what he wants is some consideration
>and/or comps since he purchased rhn entitlements which will 
>expire and which he is unable to use while beta testing severn.  
>Why is he unable to use them?  Because the machine he was planning
>on using them on is now running severn.

Oh he can sure use the entitlement...if updates show up for the beta :->
The point is there is no garuntee or even a promise for updates for the
beta to show up in the beta rhn channel. If I were a betting man...i
would say that at some point in this beta cycle, the beta channel at rhn
will get a few updates...if only to test out rhn/up2date
connectivity/functionality during the beta (that will need testing too
before the next product release).  You have to be willing to wait for
updates though. If they don't come...they don't come...no one in an
official position is going to promise that any updates will show up.
There are far too many day to day packaging updates that appear in
rawhide to create errata announcements for each and everyone, and place
them in the rhn system.  And frankly doing something like that would
undermine the point of RHN, day to day rawhide changes can break as much
as they fix.

Here is another way of looking at it...lets say down the road when we
all install RHL 17, and somehow miraculously there are no security
vulnerabilities for the first 3 months after the release...the rhn
channel could easily be without updates for that 3 month period. Now..is
that channel going unused? Or is it in fact being used precisely how
it's suppose to be used...and there just aren't any critical security
updates to be provided. RHN is primarily used for critical security
updates. RHN is a security blanket..to make it easy for you to get
security updates(and more rarely bugfixes and rarer still
enhancements.)  The intrinsic value of the service RHN provides is
drastically reduced during a beta. You'll have a hard time trying to
define what is worth creating an errata announcement for during a
beta...especially this early in the beta.

>Since he is performing a valuable service for RedHat, it would
>be apropos for RedHat to comp him with an entitlement extension
>for when he shifts out of beta testing mode

Oh yeah...that scales out nicely...lets all get an extention to our
entitlements for every beta phase...I'd never have to buy an entitlement
again...becuase id just keep extending it with beta phase usage. Nope,
sorry...this isn't going to happen.  RHN explicitly states in their faq
that:

"Red Hat Network currently only supports versions of Red Hat Linux and
Red Hat Enterprise Linux that are still active (have not yet reached End
of Life status). For a list of currently maintained Red Hat versions,
please go to http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/errata/"

Don't buy rhn entitlements for beta systems...I don't think yer going to
find any official statement from any redhat employee saying this is a
good idea.  It's not a good idea...there is in fact very little value in
it. During a beta you aren't promised one single security update...one
single bugfix update...one single enhancement update.

>...or to make those
>entitlements useful and worth using while in beta test mode.

It is useful...even with no packages.  You watch the little update icon
and you wait...and wait and wait.  Think of this as approximating how
rhn will handle a perfectly stable and secure linux distribution. It's
all in how you look at it.

-jef"my glass is half-empty of air..which makes it in fact a full
glass"spaleta

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