Free Red Hat Server?

[kp1126]

I'm looking to get some enterprise level experience w/ linux. It seems that Red Hat is still the OS of choice for the enterprise world.....however, redhat.com doesn't seem to have any free downloads. Any one know of a internet download? I've heard you can buy books that include a free Red Hat server OS; any recomendations? Any other suggestions would be helpful. Thanks all.

 

[Samalama]

I believe you're looking for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is a commercial OS and therefore cannot be downloaded for free. The last noncommercial version of Red Hat was Red Hat 9, which then branched off into Fedora Linux.

Edit: I just came across a 30 day trial version of RHE on their website: Link

Edit x2: You might also be interested in CentOS, which is "directly" based on Red Hat Enterprise. Here's some more info and a download link.

Edit x3: Apparently "Red Hat" is two words

 

[kp1126]

Thanks Samalama.

Is CentOS closer to RedHat than Fedora?

 

[Samalama]

Originally posted by: kp1126
Is CentOS closer to RedHat than Fedora?

Yep, CentOS is based on the same source code as Red Hat Enterprise and is updated with stability in mind, unlike Fedora which is updated to be fairly "bleeding edge."

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: kp1126
Thanks Samalama.

Is CentOS closer to RedHat than Fedora?

Yeah, I'll second that CentOS is as close to RHEL as you can get. CentOS is built from RHEL source code with only logos and the name changed.

 

[child of wonder]

CentOS FTW

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: kp1126
I'm looking to get some enterprise level experience w/ linux. It seems that Red Hat is still the OS of choice for the enterprise world.....however, redhat.com doesn't seem to have any free downloads. Any one know of a internet download? I've heard you can buy books that include a free Red Hat server OS; any recomendations? Any other suggestions would be helpful. Thanks all.

as mentioned, CentOS is the way to go, and you can find plenty of books for general sysadmin stuff. some of the latest will be published in the summer, but something like a RHCE book would do

 

[JD50]

CentOS is exactly the same as Red Hat, use that and you'll be fine. CentOS + VMware = win

 

[kp1126]

Thanks again to everyone for your input. I'm downloading CentOS 5 now.

 

[Koharski]

I know this is a pretty nooby question but how do they get away with charging for linux? Doesn't the licensing force them to release the source code free?

 

[little elvis]

Originally posted by: Koharski
I know this is a pretty nooby question but how do they get away with charging for linux? Doesn't the licensing force them to release the source code free?

They do release the source code, that's what CentOS uses. What they do not release are the binaries.

 

[Nothinman]

I know this is a pretty nooby question but how do they get away with charging for linux? Doesn't the licensing force them to release the source code free?

Essentially they're charging for support, not the software.