Free vs. pay versions (Re: Oracle Sues Google Over Android)

[blu-Z8efaSeK1ezqlBn2x/YWAg at public.gmane.org (Edward Ned Harvey)]

> From: discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org [mailto:discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org] On
> Behalf Of Jarod Wilson
> 
> >
> > For *hardware* it does not work well. ?They require RHEL because they
> paid
> > RedHat to develop something proprietary
> 
> Huh? Says who? News to me. And I work here. Pretty sure you're
> incorrect there. Red Hat doesn't do proprietary software development
> for *anyone*. The software in question is more likely written by Dell
> themselves. No clue how they're enforcing use only with RHEL though.

I went down this road before, extensively, and 100% certain.  I had centos
installed on a dell server with perc controller.  I copied the
redhat-release file from a legitimate and supposedly equivalent rhel
installation.  I tried to install OMSA.  It wasn't working - kept choking
with some sort of library improperly linked or something like that ...  I
called Dell support, and we worked on it together for some hours.

The conclusion was, some package (I forget the name now, it's been a few
years) in centos is the "free alternative" to something that's included in
RHEL.  It's not the same, and it doesn't work.

Yes, it is possible to get OMSA installed on centos, by doing various
tricks, so they say on some websites.  But whenever I've actually attempted
it, it hasn't worked for me, and I haven't been able to apply dell drivers,
firmware patches, or omsa on centos.  It's not worth the effort.  I just pay
for RHEL on dell servers with perc controllers.