| Finnish Red Hat dealer announces transition support for Red Hat legacy customers |
Jun. 03, 2004
Finnish Linux vendor Lineox has announced a new support program for its Linux operating system that is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code. The program provides a migration path for IT administrators who want to upgrade their legacy Red Hat systems.
Offering a lifeline to Red Hat Linux 9 users, Lineox explains that many long time Linux users are not dropping everything to migrate to a new OS, but are demanding a reliable and affordable source of updated packages for their current deployments that last for a longer period of time.
Lineox describes its Red Hat-based Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 as an enterprise level Linux distribution with almost five years of planned support life. The company's service is available to customers from 15 Euros per year for a single system to just five Euros for customers with over 50 systems. Lineox also offers volume discounts for larger enterprises.
In a statement, former Red Hat Linux 9 administrator Lucas Albers from Montana State University details his experience. He says,
"We upgraded our Red Hat 9 boxes to Lineox 3.0 because it was a seamless upgrade. Fedora would have been a poor choice, as we would have had to upgrade much too quickly. Most of the major package versions for RedHat 9 and Lineox 3.0 were the same . . . We have also used Lineox to upgrade Red Hat 9 on our computational servers, which we couldn't take offline for a CD-based upgrade. We used the apt based upgrade to do a completely remote upgrade, with no interruption of service. Lineox has been very helpful and quick to respond with any questions we have had concerning upgrades on our existing systems. Lineox supports a local apt repository so keeping systems up to date is quick and easy, we can also use third party apt repositories that are compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, such as the dag repository. Our central library also upgraded their servers from Red Hat 9 to Lineox 3.0 and have been very happy with the process. Their pricing is very economical, service is great, and system upgrades have been seamless. Most of the tools work the same as RedHat 9, so it has been very fast learning curve. I recommend Lineox to any companies/institutions looking for a cheap, reliable, and low maintenance replacement for RedHat 9."
Based on Red Hat source code
Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 is similar to Red Hat Linux 9 because it is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 and, according to Lineox, approximately 25% of the source code in Red Hat 9 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 overlap. The company says that Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 was built mostly from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 sources, so upgrading from Red Hat Linux 9 is very easy and quick.
The release contains all freely distributable programs found in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 AS/ES/WS, Red Hat Cluster Suite, and Red Hat Developer Suite. The DVD-ROM also contains six different language versions of OpenOffice.org 1.1.0, dictionaries, spell checkers, and other support files. Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 utilizes apt-get, which resolves package dependencies automatically. Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 users can use apt-get to get security and feature updates from www.lineox.com and other Internet sites.
In some cases, says the company, it is even possible to use Lineox Enterprise Linux 3.0 updates on Red Hat Linux 9 without requiring an upgrade to the rest of the system.
Supporting Red Hat's legacy code
To further aid Red Hat Linux 9 users, Lineox has made instructions available on how to upgrade their systems to Lineox Enterprise Linux using command line tools. This makes the procedure easy to deploy remotely over a network and to multiple systems at a time.
As an introductory offer to its services, Lineox says it will sell a full year of update licenses with free coverage through the end of the year. The service entitles the user to all errata releases. When Lineox updates are released, the Red Hat 9 packages will be updated to Lineox 3.0.
Indiana-based Progeny, led by Chief Strategist and Debian founder Ian Murdock, has also introduced a lifeline service program for Red Hat customers that provides customers with RPM-based updates to Red Hat Linux servers running versions 7 through 9. Progeny guarantees their service through December 2005.
Raleigh-based Red Hat discontinued their support for Red Hat Linux 9 on April 30.
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