[Yum] newbie

[Patrick A Thompson]

        After half a dozen years I am no longer officially a newbie; but
I reserve
the right to almost unlimited fumbling around.   
         What the gurus have been saying (I think) is that official
Redhat distros
of which RHEL 3 is one are supported by up2date.  Yum is designed to work
with free distros.  Redhat does not supply updates to yum formated
repositories.
         I used up2date for years and strongly recommend it  for
non-experts.
Though not as powerful or as cool as yum, it is much simpler for
fumblers.  I
don't know what Redhat charges for a subscription nowdays - it used to be
$60/yr.
How much is your time and aggravation worth ?
        Again as a dedicated fumbler and believer in "if it ain't broke,
don't 
fix it" - if your RHEL system is running fine maybe skip updates
altogether.
(Insert angry scream about security problems- but I've found that with 
really brutal firewall settings and dictatorial sysadmin policies this is
viable.)
        HTH
               Pat