New Linux Support Policies are Ominous, Feb 17, 2003

The policies are straightforward: Red Hat will support their regular distributions for twelve months from initial release. Red Hat's venerable version 6.2 will be retired on March 31st along with version 7.0. Versions 7.1 through 8.0 will expire on December 31st. After the expiration date, security patches will be provided at Red Hat's discretion only.

But as an advocate for better computer security, I'm nearly panic-stricken over this move. In the short term, at least, this will be a big negative for practical security on the Internet. Old software doesn't go away just because it's no longer supported, and with network operating systems the consequences could be drastic. Those systems will be sitting ducks for vulnerability scanners, and the size of distributed denial-of-service networks may grow exponentially as a result.

Displaying his customary wit, Linus Torvalds remarks:

Oh, and as a sign that 2.6.x really _is_ approaching, people have started sending me spelling fixes. Kernel coders are apparently all atrocious spellers, and for some reason the spelling police always comes out of the woodwork when stable releases get closer.

You can read the change log, including spelling fixes here: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.5/ChangeLog-2.5.62

Oracle is working with Red Hat to gain an internationally recognised Linux security certification, hoping to woo security conscious public sector customers.

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