Linux Support Statement

Information Services and Technology recognizes the demand for support from the growing Linux community at MIT. Over time, support has evolved from informal user groups, to formal support for Athena Linux, and now includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The current IS&T supported options for Linux at MIT are listed below.

Athena Linux

Information Services and Technology recommends and fully supports Athena Linux 9.4 which is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. This support includes supported applications, the operating system, installation, automatic update (including security hot-fixes), central account administration, and an extensive suite of documentation for users and administrators.

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Stand-Alone Red Hat

For users who need more flexibility than Athena Linux provides, Information Services and Technology fully supports stand-alone Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Operating system, install, and related issues are handled through the Computing Help Desk. Application support for fully supported applications is provided by the Computing Help Desk. Additional application support is provided by the Athena Consultants for all applications supported under Athena Linux. Consultants will make a best effort, but may not be able to assist with operating system specific application issues.

Update support through MIT-licensed access to the Red Hat network is now fully supported. Security updating through Red Hat Network is strongly recommended.

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SuSE Linux

As an experimental pilot project, IS&T offered an MIT-tailored IBM/ Lenovo T60p laptop dual-boot Windows XP / SuSE configuration through GovConnection to evaluate functionality and gauge interest. Although the configuration was highly functional, it did not prove popular. With the discontinuation of the particular IBM/Lenovo configuration, that pilot has ended. IS&T will continue to explore options for support of Linux on laptops.

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Other Linux

So many versions of Linux exist that full support for all of them is not feasible. Recognizing the inherent similarities amongst versions of Linux, IS&T provides application level support via the Athena Consultants for all applications supported under Athena Linux. Consultants will make a best effort, but may not be able to assist with operating system specific application issues.

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux Life Cycle

Red Hat will downgrade support of Red Hat Enterprise 4 from "Full Support" to "Deployment Support" on May 15, 2008. On that date, Red Hat will stop offering new hardware support for RHEL 4, but will continue to provide a full range of bug fix and security updates. A further downgrade of support to only mission critical bug fixes and security updates will occur no earlier than October 31, 2008. Users are encouraged to prepare to upgrade to Red Hat Enterprise 5. Full support from IS&T for RHEL 5 is coming soon.

IS&T retired support for Red Hat Enterprise 3 as of January 31, 2007. Red Hat is providing only mission critical bug fixes and security updates. RHEL 3 users are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

For full details see Red Hat's web page: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Errata Support Policy.

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