My Red Hat rant
Before I start my little rant, first let me say that Red Hat has done a lot for the Linux community. My very first Linux install was Red Hat 5.2. It lasted about 2 days on my machine, but it was my first.
Red Hat is also deeply involved in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project which I think is absolutely great. If you want to see the laptop in action there are two short videos posted on RH’s site: http://www.redhatmagazine.com/.
Now, on to my rant.
Here’s my story:
I have a Red Hat “server’ that was provided by a third-party vendor. Well, the software was provided by them, I provided the hardware.
It turns out that the vendor skimmed (or maybe we skimmed during contract negotiations, it doesn’t matter anyway) and instead of installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux SERVER on this machine, they installed RHEL Workstation. I’ll admit that I’m not savvy to Red Hat lingo and before yesterday, I wasn’t aware that RHEL WS wasn’t a server OS. Apparently, there is RHEL ES, RHEL AS, and RHEL WS. I guess it’s obvious that WS is not a server whereas the other two are. This comes into play later.
I also wasn’t aware that you have to PAY for updates from Red Hat. What?!? I don’t even have to pay for updates from Microsoft! So, in order to install software that Red Hat didn’t write I have to pay Red Hat. I supposed I could download the source for all of the applications that need updates but I don’t really have time to figure out what dependencies the application needs, and what dependencies the dependencies need and what configure flags I need to use for each product, and so on. Package management is a Godsend!
Apparently, we received a year of updates with the server but I never bothered to use it. I’ll admit that that was totally my fault and that neglecting a server for a full year is very very bad. So I call Pre-Sales and tell them that I need to renew my subscription. The guy on the phone tells me that I can do all of this on their website and resets my RHN password.
Now, this is where the dislike for Red Hat comes in. I’ll go ahead and skip to the end and tell you that I bought the wrong subscription. Instead of buying a workstation subscription, I bought one for a server. In my defense, however, I want you to look at this page (https://www.redhat.com/wapps/store/catalog.html) and tell me what about the Red Hat Enterprise Linux section says SERVER? Where does it say that if you want to upgrade your WS (which I didn’t know wasn’t a server) subscription that you need to click on the Desktop link at the top?
I only realized I bought the wrong subscription after repeated failed attempts at getting the problem resolved through Tech Support. My problem was the up2date application was failing with libxml2 errors. After telling Tech Support a few times that everything but WS was in my available download options, they finally told me I didn’t have a subscription for the WS packages and to contact Customer Support.
This is the part that gets to me more than anything. Customer Support agreed that I had purchased the wrong support contract but they have a strict policy against refunds. NO REFUNDS! Wait, so Pre-Sales told me to get the package I bought and there was NO INDICATION that what I bought was for a server (even if I did know that WS wasn’t a server). Somehow it’s MY FAULT for buying the wrong thing. She did tell me that if I went ahead and bought a Desktop contract it would make more of a convincing argument to refund my earlier purchase. Well, I have to patch this server, I mean workstation, so what other choice do I have. Now I have a 1-yr support contract for a product I don’t even own. [EDIT @ 4:49pm] I just got a call from RH and they ARE going to refund the purchase of the server contract. That’s extremely generous of them considering their strict no refund policy. Still, they need to add some sort of a description to the product listings to prevent idiots like me from buying the wrong thing. [/EDIT]
I’m still trying to figure out why someone would choose to go with a product like RHEL. As far as I can see, there are little, if any, advantages to it. You have to BUY the Operating System. You have to PAY for updates to software they didn’t even write. I have NEVER felt that I needed paid support for Linux. If you can’t find the answer from a Google search, then you don’t need to be running Linux. I mean, even Microsoft only charges per incident. There’s no contract to buy every year for Microsoft support.
Another thing, the first time you run up2date, one of the default options is to send the server’s name and INTERNAL IP ADDRESS to Red Hat. Supposedly, it’s for your convenience. Why in the world would I want anyone knowing the internal IP scheme of my network. Sure, it’s not entirely difficult to get the internal IPs, but still, what’s the point of Red Hat having it? The whole Red Hat setup where they want your systems reporting back to them is just not cool, either. What’s the point of that? I don’t need some portal on Red Hat’s network keeping up with my internal servers. Now, I will say that the first Pre-Sales guy I talked to mentioned that Red Hat has some customers with thousands of RHEL servers and that Red Hat’s management software really helps the Administrators of those networks. I think if I was ever in charge of thousands of Linux servers, the last thing I would think of is spending 359 dollars a piece on them every single year I had them (assuming there’s not a discount for having that many support contracts). However, I’ve never been over thousands of Linux servers so maybe Red Hat’s stuff is the way to go.
To each his own, I suppose. It’s not that I dislike the OS itself, it’s just that this whole experience of getting this machine upgraded has been a royal pain.
Thanks for letting me vent.