Quoting AT ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > I would like to test and probably use redhat advance server 2.1 I have > to buy it - right? since it is not available for download for about > $1499 which includes limited support.
Please see my text from http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/linux-info/rhas-isos , quoted below. I wrote it to answer a slightly different but closely related question. > What if I dont need the additional support from redhat that cost me > $1499, can I install redhat advance server that I bought to different > machines or do I have to buy 3 AS 2.1 if im going to install it on 3 > machines? It's my understanding that the bundled _service_ is licensed per machine and for a set length of time -- but that it's perfectly legal to install and use the software itself on as many machines as you like. http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/linux-info/rhas-isos has: People frequently ask where to download ISOs (CD images) of Red Hat Advanced Server. The answer appears to be: You can't. Q: What do you mean "can't"? A: Literally what I said. Look around. There simply aren't any ISOs. Q: Doesn't the GPL require that they put ISOs up? A: No. Don't be a moron. First, the GPL applies only to individual packages issued under that licence by their copyright owners. Second, the GPL says nothing about required access to binaries in any form, let alone ISOs. Third, the access that _is_ required, to _source_ code (if done according to the method specified in clause 3b as opposed to the other two methods) need not be either free of charge or via Internet access. Q: But I've seen entire directories of RHAS packages on Red Hat mirror sites! A: Yes, those were source-code RPM packages, aka "SRPMs". You'll notice that all their names ended with ".src.rpm". Q: If there are public ftp/http trees of SRPMs, doesn't that imply that there can be source-package ISOs? A: I don't know. Maybe nobody's bothered to assemble one and put it up, and felt like underwriting other people's downloads. Maybe RH, Inc. asserts compilation copyright -- or asserts right to allow or disallow copies that display its trademarks (images of the "shadowman" logo, and certain trademarked phrases). In any event, I really doubt you'll find any. I've looked. Q: Is there anything stopping someone from compiling the distribution from the source RPMs and distributing either the binary .rpm files or an entire ISO of them? A: Not that I know of. My recollection is that it consists solely of packages with licences allowing redistribution. The same questions apply as for source-code ISOs. Q: Your last couple of answers have been a bit vague. Can't you get some more-definitive answers to those questions? A: Sure. Just buy me a (US $600 or so) boxed-set copy of Red Hat Advanced Server, and I'll be glad to licence-audit all of its contents to determine if all or almost all of it may be lawfully redistributed in public. That may involve some surgery to find and remove expressions of Red Hat's trademarks, but I'm up for it, if you're footing the bill. (I am not an attorney, and nothing in my work will constitute legal advice.) If it can be done, _you_ (not me) are welcome to then put up the ISOs at your expense for every cheapskate in the world to download. (If you think _I'm_ going to pay large amounts of money to buy the product required to get those answers, you're dreaming.) Maybe the reason you don't find ISOs is that nobody's willing to carry out the massive amount of work required to check for legal encumbrances AND either pay for a boxed set or laboriously compile from SRPMs, _AND_ then worry about whether they've missed a legal encumbrance AND pay to underwrite other people's downloads. Q: I'm pretty sure I read somewhere (e.g., http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhlas_us.html) that RHAS is licensed for fixed terms that must be paid for, that later expire, and that must be renewed at extra cost. A: Are you sure? The above page says that the _services_ bundled with the software expire and must be renewed. Red Hat Software, Inc. clarifies on http://www.redhat.com/software/whichlinux.html that "that the code is open and protected by the GPL license. It's not proprietary. We're licensing the services, not the software." Q: If it's possible to build RHAS from source, and if it's probably lawful to redistribution either such builds or (probably even) the binary ISOs from a boxed-set RHAS distribution costing many hundreds of dollars and an expensive support contract, why do companies buy the boxed set anyway? A: Presumably for the paid priority technical support, access to Red Hat engineers, the entitlement to get automated maintenance via Red Hat Network, etc. That's, after all, one of the classic business models for open-source software. Some comments about building RHAS from source RPMs follow: Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2003 13:50:22 +0100 From: Ronan Waide <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [ILUG] compiling RHAS2.1 from src rpms X-Mailer: VM 7.13 under Emacs 21.2.1 Organization: poor at best. On April 1, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: > 1.)Does anyone see any problems with this scenario? > 2.)Some of the RPMS don't compile, eg the following which are only the > first 12 of those src.rpms which won't compile. If I can somehow get a > bare bones RHAS system up, then I should be able to compile these later > on I think, so long as I have enough to get me to a barebones stage. Am > I right? > 3.)Has anyone tried compiling the RHAS2.1 src.rpms for i686? To answer all three in one: I've built RHAS from source. The main thing about building a Red Hat system from source is that generally speaking you need to compile the packages in the environment in which they'll run, i.e. an RHAS system should be built by another RHAS system. Probably the handiest way to do this without paying attention to what you're doing is to build using a different root fs, and install all your packages there. The rpm commands provide the -root flag to help you with this. You will not be able to build the 6.2 compat packages, because they're supposed to be built on a 6.2 system. Everything else will eventually build. Once you've got a system built, you can use it to make proper boot disks, as opposed to hammering them together from RH7.2. Note, it's been several months since I went through this, but the approximate process was to crawl over the source to anaconda (the installer) to find out what order it starts installing packages in, install those packages, then work my way up from there. Once I enough stuff installed in the fake root, I chroot'ed to it and rebuilt everything from scratch. Several iterations of "build all packages, then install all successfully built packages" were required before I got to a full build, after which I rebuilt all the packages again to create the "final" install set. Hope this gets you some of the way there. Cheers, Waider. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] / Yes, it /is/ very personal of me. "if you can't live the lie, let it die/and if you can't live a life filled with strife/honey, just say oops/and jump through hoops/and get to the end of the line" - FLC, "Bear Hug" (Come Find Yourself) _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fully Searchable Archives With Friendly Web Interface at http://marc.free.net.ph To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
