Amazon introduces their hilarious new Linux Distribution "Amazon Linux 2"

[AlTech]

Edit:

I realize this may sound stupidly boring but please bear with me. There is important stuff in this which has nothing to do with linux and is more ethical discussions.

 

Original:

Amazon has introduced their new Linux Distribution called "Amazon Linux 2".

 

Amazon Linux 2 is a Linux Distribution developed and provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

 

This Linux distribution aims to allow better optimizations and performance for running AWS products.

 

Quote

Amazon Linux 2 is the next generation Amazon Linux operating system. It provides a high performance, stable, and secure execution environment for cloud and enterprise applications. Amazon Linux 2 will offer extended availability of software updates for the core operating system through 5 years of long-term support and provides access to the latest software packages through the Amazon Linux Extras repository.

(Highlighting is mine. I've highlighted the important main bits.)

 

Quote

Amazon Linux 2 is available as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for use on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (AmazonEC2), and as a Docker container image for use in any Docker based environment, including Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS). It is also available as virtual machine images for VMware, Oracle VM VirtualBox, and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization solutions for on-premises development and testing. Amazon Linux 2 provides a modern execution environment with LTS Kernel (4.9) tuned for optimal performance on Amazon Web Services (AWS), systemd support, and newer tooling (gcc 7.2.1, glibc 2.25, binutils 2.27). Additional software packages, including the newer versions of popular software packages such as Python, MariaDB, Node.js, are available for installation using the Amazon Linux Extras repository.

 

And of course Amazon has the balls to tell you that you are f*cking lucky to be offered it free of charge. What a joke .

Quote

Amazon Linux 2 LTS Candidate is available in all public regions starting today. The LTS build will follow. Amazon Linux 2 is provided at no additional charge. Standard Amazon EC2 and AWS charges apply for running Amazon EC2 instances and other services.

(Highlighting and font size is mine again.)

 

And of course Amazon Web Services must squeeze all the revenues from all of their loving and loyal customers by charging obscene amounts for their regular services at their normal price points. /sarcasm

 

 

Sorry Amazon but you really f*cked up. You just don't charge money or talk about doing that for a Linux Distro. That's so wrong.

 

I mean you can totally charge people for Long Term Support but seriously? I swear, every company is trying to condition people to get free sh*t and then insults them by saying you know what f*ck you we're giving it to your free you lucky customer (or Whale or dolphin or any animal name if you happen to be a Take Two Interactive Customer cos we know Take Two executives talk about their customers as if they are animals). Even if in many cases it would be unreasonable to charge money for it.

 

Well, I'm glad Lunduke called Amazon out cos I wouldn't have heard about it otherwise.

 

Oh Well .

 

Sources:

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2017/12/introducing-amazon-linux-2/

 

Video link is copy pasted with the relevant Time Stamp.

 

1. Linux is a trademark of the Linux Foundation.
2. All other copyrights and/or trademarks belong to their respective organizations.
3. If there are discrepancies between this forum post and the sources regarding conflicting information, the sources listed above shall prevail.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

This is my interpretation of this service as I am not familiar with this type of tech. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

This might actual be a good thing on the enterprise side. Small companies that rely on Amazon's cloud computing would have a more seamless way of accessing AWS.

[Nocte]

44 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

And of course Amazon has the balls to tell you that you are f*cking lucky to be offered it free of charge. What a joke .

It doesn't say anything like that. It only says that it's free.

It's in their interest to promote the distro they made, and to avoid any doubts and/or raise interest they just state that it's free.

 

How should have they said it otherwise? They definitely didn't imply they were being generous by offering it for free.

[mynameisjuan]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

And of course Amazon has the balls to tell you that you are f*cking lucky to be offered it free of charge. What a joke .

Dude its an enterprise level distro. CentOS, Redhat....all charge for that shit. Use this on their servers and they will provide support. Exactly the same shit other distros charge for. The long term support is normal and yes should be free, but tech support costs fucking money. 

 

Yes linux is typically free but if someone or some company dumps money into development of product they can charge what they want. Dont want to pay, dont buy it. That simple. But bitching that you have to pay for something that someone spent money making is horseshit. 

[NumLock21]

Dell also charges more for their linux system than windows. You need people for technical support, and they also need money to make a living.

And can you for once write a topic in a neutral pov instead of bashing left and right. 

[mrchow19910319]

Your news is good,, but your tone is a bit too extreme... I think. 

It makes your post seem less professional. 

Just my opinion btw.

[Tribalinius]

Enterprise support is a thing you know. AWS is pretty competitive overall especially when you take long term contracts with them on EC2 instances for example.

For me, it does not make sense anymore in 2018 to buy physical servers w/licences to have to replace them every 5 years (except for very specific use case), to have to do the maintenance on them every once in a while and ensure that we have everything on hand if a failure occurs. The less physical stuff I have to deal with, the more I can focus to make a company grow through IT instead of having my head inside a rack trying to check which RAM module is defective. I deal with so many SMB that are not equipped properly that moving them to the cloud to centralize everything is by far the best thing that we can do with them.

[goodtofufriday]

Having a distro that makes controlling AWS easier is great. Its a paon in the butt on windows. Having it be free is even better. 

Your post makes it seem like you are very unaware of enterprise level products, as Amazon is doing this in a very fair way. 

[dalekphalm]

I was gonna say... Pretty sure Redhat Enterprise Linux charges for their products. In fact, even the self-support license for Desktop is $50. Their workstation (Not even Server) license, which includes tech support, is $300 a year.

 

So Amazon is providing an Enterprise Linux w/ free tech support for free?

 

Fucking kickass! Great job Amazon!

[Ginger_]

I want you to spend countless hours designing me a product, I want it free, and I want you to be there at any time I ever have an issue, for free! 

 

Seems fair right? 

 

I should send Asus an email with this logic... Maybe I'll get free hardware. 

[Kukielka]

This whole post sounds like a parody.

Ofcourse they can sell a product that is optimized to theirecosystem...

[Egg-Roll]

As mentioned above at least 2 times Redhat isn't free and is a Linux Distro, technically speaking OS X is even a form of Linux, and only way to get that is threw a very expensive computer. Basically if Amazon produces something from the Linux Kernel depending on how the agreement of use is depicted they can sell it at any price they wish.

 

However where the hell did OP get the fact they charged money for the OS? All I keep reading is "free"

 

the "Standard Amazon EC2 and AWS charges apply for running Amazon EC2 instances and other services." Simply enforces that only the OS is free and not their other products.

 

Quote

I want you to spend countless hours designing me a product, I want it free, and I want you to be there at any time I ever have an issue, for free! 

 

Seems fair right? 

 

I should send Asus an email with this logic... Maybe I'll get free hardware. 

This is the biggest problem with the current world, if it's parent or sister of said product or service is cheaper regardless how much better it might be everyone wants it for the same price.

 

If it has a use for you and brings in happiness, money or whatever you require from it, it's technically worth its price.

 

BTW try the logic on a company that isn't so giving... Like Nvidia  ASUS seems to hand out their products like dishwater...

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Egg-Roll said:

technically speaking OS X is even a form of Linux

/nerdrant

 

Technically, no, OSX is not a form of Linux in the slightest. MacOS (OS X) is a Unix based OS, just like Linux is. But Linux macOS are different things. Just like BSD is a Unix-based OS, but is also not Linux.

 

/endnerdrant

[Egg-Roll]

3 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

/nerdrant

 

Technically, no, OSX is not a form of Linux in the slightest. MacOS (OS X) is a Unix based OS, just like Linux is. But Linux macOS are different things. Just like BSD is a Unix-based OS, but is also not Linux.

 

/endnerdrant

I knew something didn't sound right when i typed that  Oh well...

[dalekphalm]

8 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

I knew something didn't sound right when i typed that  Oh well...

Haha no worries. It's a common misconception. Linux, macOS, and BSD (FreeNAS or FreeBSD) are all Unix-derived OS's. Unix is their father. But each is unique and different, and uses their own kernels.

 

The Unix ancestry is why they have similar commands for Terminal, similar architecture in many ways, etc.

[NumLock21]

Another enterprise linux distro is Suse. They charge $2,160 for 3 year standard support and $4,050 for 3 year priority support.

https://www.suse.com/

https://www.suse.com/shop/server/#subnav

[Bananasplit_00]

1 hour ago, Ginger137 said:

I should send Asus an email with this logic... Maybe I'll get free hardware. 

Nah, but you can have a free bitch slap from the support

28 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Another enterprise linux distro is Suse. They charge $2,160 for 3 year standard support and $4,050 for 3 year priority support.

https://www.suse.com/

https://www.suse.com/shop/server/#subnav

You can use SUSE in a professional environment? Probably the same people that buy ASUS and Seagate

[suicidalfranco]

Shit. If i was Red Hat right i'd start to get worry, the Amazon grey goo is coming for them!

[Bit_Guardian]

5 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

Dude its an enterprise level distro. CentOS, Redhat....all charge for that shit. Use this on their servers and they will provide support. Exactly the same shit other distros charge for. The long term support is normal and yes should be free, but tech support costs fucking money. 

 

Yes linux is typically free but if someone or some company dumps money into development of product they can charge what they want. Dont want to pay, dont buy it. That simple. But bitching that you have to pay for something that someone spent money making is horseshit. 

CentOS does not. It's the literal free version of RHEL. However, it should be noted Intel and IBM charge for their custom distros, so there is precedent 

[dalekphalm]

1 minute ago, Bit_Guardian said:

CentOS does not. It's the literal free version of RHEL. However, it should be noted Intel and IBM charge for their custom distros, so there is precedent 

Does the free version of RHEL include support? Because Amazon Linux 2 does, which is why the comparison is being made.

[Bit_Guardian]

2 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Nah, but you can have a free bitch slap from the support

You can use SUSE in a professional environment? Probably the same people that buy ASUS and Seagate

I'm able to. It beats the snot out of CentOS.

 

3 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Does the free version of RHEL include support? Because Amazon Linux 2 does, which is why the comparison is being made.

Only at a community level, or self-support with incredibly good documentation. So technically no. I'm just saying, feel free to point out RHEL, but not CentOS.

[Bananasplit_00]

Just now, Bit_Guardian said:

I'm able to. It beats the snot out of CentOS.

 

Only at a community level, or self-support with incredibly good documentation. So technically no. I'm just saying, feel free to point out RHEL, but not CentOS.

Yah just joking around, just like Seagate and ASUS, I just don't have an especially nice history with them(though Seagate I don't actually have much personal experience with)

[Misanthrope]

Yeah this is hilarious, almost as laugh inducing as Red Hat Linux  I mean who names a product "Red Hat" LMAO!

 

Come on now, this is the clickiest bait thread of the year in Tech news.

[Bananasplit_00]

7 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Yeah this is hilarious, almost as laugh inducing as Red Hat Linux  I mean who names a product "Red Hat" LMAO!

 

Come on now, this is the clickiest bait thread of the year in Tech news.

Well you are not wrong so far

[AlTech]

10 hours ago, huilun02 said:

As expected from AluminiumTech, turning good news into bad news because its about a product that competes with Microsoft's.

Lol. No?

10 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Yeah I know Linux barely competes with Windows for end users. But this distro is not really for end users.

I'll have you know that I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows and most of the tools I use are available on both platforms.