Page 95 - Red Hat PR REPORT - JULY 2025

7/25/25, 9:59 AM The Best-Kept Secret is Out: Red Hat Confirms No-Cost RHEL is for Businesses Too – Licenseware
The Critical Caveat: The Price of “Free” is Self-Support

While the software itself is free, both offerings come with a critical distinction that businesses must understand: they are self-support
subscriptions. This is the fundamental trade-off. Users of the no-cost subscriptions get access to the full RHEL software, including all
updates and security patches, through the Red Hat Customer Portal.⁵ They also have access to a wealth of knowledge base articles and
community forums where they can seek help from peers.¹
However, what they do not get is official, one-on-one technical support from Red Hat’s engineers.¹ If a critical issue arises on a production
server, there is no support ticket to file, no phone number to call, and no service-level agreement (SLA) guaranteeing a response. The
responsibility for troubleshooting and resolving problems rests entirely on the user’s internal expertise or their ability to find solutions within
the community. This contrasts sharply with a standard paid RHEL subscription, where the primary value is not just the software, but the
enterprise-grade, 24/7 support that comes with it.

A Strategic Play in the Enterprise Linux Wars

This clarification is not happening in a vacuum. It is a direct and strategic response to the market dynamics that followed Red Hat’s
controversial decision in 2023 to limit public access to RHEL source code. That move, intended to protect Red Hat’s intellectual property and
business model, angered many in the open-source community and fueled the momentum of RHEL clones.¹
By loudly proclaiming that RHEL itself is available for small-scale production use at no cost, Red Hat is attempting to recapture the segment
of the market that flocked to these alternatives. The strategy is clear: bring users into the official Red Hat ecosystem early. As Gunnar
Hellekson, Red Hat’s VP and general manager of RHEL, stated, the goal is to give developers “direct access to the world’s leading
enterprise Linux platform without having to move through centralized IT channels.”³ A small business that starts on a no-cost RHEL
subscription is far more likely to convert to a paid, fully supported subscription as it grows and its need for official support increases. It is a
classic “freemium” model applied to the enterprise OS, designed to build a pipeline of future paying customers.
This move provides more choice and transparency for businesses. It allows organizations to make a conscious decision based on their
budget, technical capabilities, and risk tolerance. For those with the in-house expertise to manage a self-supported environment, the no-cost
RHEL subscription is now an officially sanctioned and highly attractive option. For others, the value of guaranteed, enterprise-grade support
from Red Hat will remain a critical investment. The secret is out, and the enterprise Linux landscape is all the more competitive for it.

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