Red Hat announces Enterprise Linux 6.3 Beta

[redman]

QUOTE

Red Hat announces the availability of the public Beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3. With this Beta, Red Hat provides early access to the third minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, which was initially announced in November 2010. This minor release demonstrates the ongoing effort of Red Hat to innovate with Red Hat Enterprise Linux while maintaining the overall application and platform compatibility across the life cycle. As recently announced the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 life cycle is now extended to 10 years.

Read the complete announcement and improvements here.
The release notes can be found here.

You will need a valid subscription when you want to download the beta.

[tux99]

QUOTE (redman @ Apr 25 2012, 12:39 PM)

QUOTE Red Hat announces the availability of the public Beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3. You will need a valid subscription when you want to download the beta.

RH seems to have a peculiar understanding of the term 'public'...

[AndrewSerk]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Apr 25 2012, 08:23 AM)

QUOTE (redman @ Apr 25 2012, 12:39 PM) QUOTE Red Hat announces the availability of the public Beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3. You will need a valid subscription when you want to download the beta. RH seems to have a peculiar understanding of the term 'public'...

RH almost always requires a subscription to download Beta releases. Think of it like a cover charge at the door to help keep some of the riffraff out.

[tux99]

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Apr 25 2012, 04:08 PM)

RH almost always requires a subscription to download Beta releases. Think of it like a cover charge at the door to help keep some of the riffraff out.

TBH I find that a bit silly, RH doesn't make any money with the ISOs anyway, it's the support subscriptions that make them the money, so the more people try out their ISOs the more will potentially buy a support subscription.

Anyway I requested a 30 day evaluation subscription (since I currently don't have access to any corporate account with active RH subscription) and got access to the 6.3 beta ISOs less than an hour later. I'm downloading the ISOs now.

[AndrewSerk]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Apr 25 2012, 11:13 AM)

Anyway I requested a 30 day evaluation subscription (since I currently don't have access to any corporate account with active RH subscription) and got access to the 6.3 beta ISOs less than an hour later. I'm downloading the ISOs now.

Nice that there is another (Free) way!

[Nathan]

I suppose they do it to lower bandwidth costs a bit. After all, those ISOs aren't exactly small and they most likely think (with good reason) that only very few people that don't have a RH subscription want to try out the Betas anyway.

[Nux]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Apr 25 2012, 04:13 PM)

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ Apr 25 2012, 04:08 PM) RH almost always requires a subscription to download Beta releases. Think of it like a cover charge at the door to help keep some of the riffraff out.  TBH I find that a bit silly, RH doesn't make any money with the ISOs anyway, it's the support subscriptions that make them the money, so the more people try out their ISOs the more will potentially buy a support subscription. Anyway I requested a 30 day evaluation subscription (since I currently don't have access to any corporate account with active RH subscription) and got access to the 6.3 beta ISOs less than an hour later. I'm downloading the ISOs now.

Hi,

Can you paste somewhere the RPMs names on the ISO(s)?
I'm curious what they have updated in this beta release.

[tux99]

QUOTE (Nux @ Apr 26 2012, 10:39 AM)

Can you paste somewhere the RPMs names on the ISO(s)? I'm curious what they have updated in this beta release.

Will do, the download is still running, I had to restart it this morning as the one yesterday crashed at 85%. Unfortunately RH forces people to use the browser for downloading, I tried running wget with the download link from the browser but it was giving me errors about not being logged in (RH probably checks for cookies).

[redman]

I've downloaded the isos and checked their contents briefly. Saw Firefox 10 ESR and some newer packages, but nothing spectacular (as expected). Just another release with all current/new updates.

[tux99]

QUOTE (Nux @ Apr 26 2012, 10:39 AM)

Can you paste somewhere the RPMs names on the ISO(s)? I'm curious what they have updated in this beta release.

Here you go: http://pastebin.com/Gbj1Erg7
compare that to: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/6Server/en/os/SRPMS/

IMHO the most significant change for desktop users is libreoffice 3.4.5 instead of OO.

Other changes I consider important are:
java 1.7 is now included in addition to 1.6
rsyslog changed from 4.6.2 to 5.8.7
bind changed from 9.7.x to 9.8.x

[Nux]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Apr 26 2012, 01:54 PM)

QUOTE (Nux @ Apr 26 2012, 10:39 AM) Can you paste somewhere the RPMs names on the ISO(s)? I'm curious what they have updated in this beta release. IMHO the most significant change for desktop users is libreoffice 3.4.5 instead of OO.

I knew it! Thanks for sharing.
I've seen the Changelog, but they don't list this. So they're at 3.4.5.2-10, I'm at 3.4.5.2-9; hopefully a graceful update will happen for everyone using my repo.

[arnavk007]

The kernel used is still 2.6.32. why don't they update it?

[Nathan]

Enterprise Linux is about stability; cutting edge stuff is for Fedora.

[toracat]

QUOTE (arnavk007 @ May 2 2012, 09:40 AM)

The kernel used is still 2.6.32. why don't they update it?

You should not be fooled by the version number. You can find some details about 'backporting' here.

For example, SL-5 kernel is based on 2.6.18 and this will not change through its life span. However it now literally has thousands of patches. This includes both security and bug fixes.

[redman]

QUOTE (arnavk007 @ May 2 2012, 07:40 PM)

The kernel used is still 2.6.32. why don't they update it?

You might want to read about it here.
It is all about being a stable distro where (most of the software) stays on the same major version during its lifespan (and only bugfixes are coming out).

[arnavk007]

ok. so the kernel used may have a lower number but it is as good as the latest 3 kernel.

[ibrahimtawbe]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Apr 26 2012, 01:54 PM)

QUOTE (Nux @ Apr 26 2012, 10:39 AM) Can you paste somewhere the RPMs names on the ISO(s)? I'm curious what they have updated in this beta release. Here you go: http://pastebin.com/Gbj1Erg7 compare that to: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/enterprise/6Server/en/os/SRPMS/ IMHO the most significant change for desktop users is libreoffice 3.4.5 instead of OO. Other changes I consider important are: java 1.7 is now included in addition to 1.6 rsyslog changed from 4.6.2 to 5.8.7 bind changed from 9.7.x to 9.8.x

can you share with us /usr/share/backgrounds ? if there is any redhat wallpapers

[tux99]

QUOTE (ibrahimtawbe @ May 5 2012, 12:04 PM)

can you share with us /usr/share/backgrounds ? if there is any redhat wallpapers

The Redhat wallpapers are copyrighted by Redhat and "Licensed only for approved usage". They aren't opensource so I can't redistribute them.

[toracat]

QUOTE (arnavk007 @ May 4 2012, 11:00 PM)

ok. so the kernel used may have a lower number but it is as good as the latest 3 kernel.

It is as "good" when it comes to known security patches and bug fixes. Newer kernels, however, may have support for more/new devices (for example) and later versions of drivers for the existing ones. This all depends on what is, or is not, backported by TUV.

[fnj666]

QUOTE (toracat @ May 5 2012, 11:09 AM)

QUOTE (arnavk007 @ May 4 2012, 11:00 PM) ok. so the kernel used may have a lower number but it is as good as the latest 3 kernel. It is as "good" when it comes to known security patches and bug fixes. Newer kernels, however, may have support for more/new devices (for example) and later versions of drivers for the existing ones. This all depends on what is, or is not, backported by TUV.

Having said that, Redhat also backports new functionality. For example, RHEL6.3 came out today. It still uses 2.6.32 kernel, but Ivy Bridge, USB3, and other cutting edge hardware support has been backported. I find hardware support in RHEL6 to be excellent.