No-cost Red Hat Enterprise Linux Individual Developer Subscription: FAQs

General

1. What is the Red Hat Developer program's Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals?

The Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is a no-cost offering of the Red Hat Developer program and includes access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux among other Red Hat products. It is a program and an offering designed for individual developers, available through the Red Hat Developer program.

2. What Red Hat Enterprise Linux developer subscription is made available at no cost?

The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is available and includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux along with numerous other Red Hat technologies. Users can access this no-cost subscription by joining the Red Hat Developer program at developers.redhat.com/register. Joining the program is free.

3. What Red Hat Enterprise Linux variant and components are included in the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals?

The Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals includes the following Red Hat Enterprise Linux components:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (includes GUI)
Red Hat Software Collections and Application Streams
Red Hat Developer Toolset and Compilers
Numerous Red Hat Enterprise Linux infrastructure add-ons

4. Are the Red Hat Enterprise Linux binaries offered via the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals the same as what enterprises use in production?

Yes, the bits are identical to the versions made available via paid subscriptions that allow production use for organizations and enterprises. Review the terms and conditions of the subscription in the registration form, shown in Figure 1.

Individuals may use Red Hat Enterprise Linux provided via this subscription for development, testing, and small production use cases. In addition to the currently supported latest releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals offers access to older versions covering a ten-year lifespan.

5. What has changed about the Red Hat Enterprise Linux offering in the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals?

The use cases for Red Hat Enterprise Linux have been expanded in the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals. The Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is a single subscription, which allows the user to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a maximum of 16 systems, physical or virtual, regardless of system facts and size. Those 16 nodes may be used by the individual developer for demos, prototyping, QA, small production uses, and cloud access.

The Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals terms formerly limited Red Hat Enterprise Linux use to single-machine developers. The Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is still only available to individuals, not organizations or teams, and is designed for personal servers, home labs, and small open source communities. Review the program terms and conditions of the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals for details.

6. What’s different between this no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals and the one used by enterprises in production?

All of the software binaries that are available to a subscription are the same regardless of the support level. Subscriptions vary by the level and type of support offered. Enterprises purchase subscriptions that include service level agreements that meet their business's need for response times. Red Hat offers subscriptions with a choice of support coverage (typical business day only, 24x7, etc.) and response time agreements. The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is self-supported. Your subscription gives you access to the Red Hat Customer Portal, access.redhat.com. Subscriber-only content on the portal includes a knowledge base with thousands of articles that cover configuration, deployment, troubleshooting, and security.

Finally, the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is entitled to individual people, whereas other subscriptions are entitled to organizations, enterprises, and/or physical and virtual nodes.

7. What is self-support and what does this no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals cover with regard to Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is self-supported. It includes:

An entitlement to register 16 physical or virtual nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Complete access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases, updates, and errata.
Self-service support through the Red Hat Customer Portal.
Access to knowledge base articles, portal discussion groups, and magazines on the Red Hat Customer Portal.
This subscription does not include support on any operating system-related issue. Users may look for the resolution in our knowledgebase articles or can discuss it over portal groups with respective domain experts. Note: there is no service level agreement for discussing issues over portal groups.

8. Is the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals for organizations/businesses/enterprises?

The no-cost self-supported Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is designed for individuals and personal accounts–only one no-cost subscription may be added to a user/Red Hat account. This subscription is ideal for an individual developer who wants to develop on Red Hat Enterprise Linux using their personal system (even if owned by their employer).

9. Can I use the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals on a corporate-owned device?

You may individually use the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals on corporate-owned devices. However, you should check to make sure that doing so doesn’t violate your organization’s IT policies (e.g., shadow IT). The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is assigned to the individual that creates the account. The account used to obtain the no-cost subscription will be completely separate from any existing corporate accounts. Your organization’s procurement group will not be able to track or manage subscriptions obtained individually through the Red Hat Developer program. Many organizations prohibit installing software that isn’t licensed to the organization.

10. How many Red Hat Enterprise Linux entitlements are included in the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals?

The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals grants the ability to install Red Hat software provided via the subscription (including Red Hat Enterprise Linux) on 16 physical or virtual nodes with Red Hat Cloud Access.

For example:

If your development system is running Windows, you can create 16 Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual nodes on your Windows system using VirtualBox, VMware, or Microsoft Hyper-V.
If you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a physical system, you will use one physical node; then you may create 15 additional virtual nodes on that system using KVM/libvirt virtualization or another hypervisor.
Using Cloud Access, you can provision 16 virtual instances in the clouds available from Red Hat’s Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) partners.

11. What Red Hat Enterprise Linux architectures are supported by the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals?

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux entitlements offered via the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals are designed for x86_64 and aarch64 (Arm) architectures. Power and Z architectures are addressed as part of the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Teams offering, available from your organization’s Red Hat sales associate.

12. Does the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals include Red Hat insights?

Yes. Visit the Red Hat Insights product page to learn more about Insights and how you can use it to identify available patches, vulnerabilities, best practices, and more.

13. Can I add multiple no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals entitlements to my Red Hat account to cover other systems or developers at my organization or enterprise?

No. Only one no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals can be added to a Red Hat user account. Additional developers can create their own user accounts via the Red Hat Developer program at developers.redhat.com/register.

Organizations with multiple developers may reach out to their Red Hat sales associate to learn more about the Red Hat Developer Subscription for Teams which includes options for paid developer support, allows multiple systems to be managed from a single account, and provides easy onboarding to provide the Red Hat software portfolio to all developers within a company.

14. Since the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is a subscription, do I have to renew it? What is the term length for this subscription? How do I renew?

If you have any questions regarding the renewal process for the Developer for Individuals Subscription, please refer to this article: How to renew your Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals

15. Can I use the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals for testing as well as development?

The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals may be used for demos, prototyping, QA, small production uses, and cloud access per the program terms and conditions on the Red Hat Developer registration form, and per Appendix 1 of the Red Hat subscription agreement.

16. Does my existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription (not the no-cost development version) include access to Red Hat Software Collections or Developer Toolset?

For the majority of Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions, yes. See How to use Red Hat Software Collections or Red Hat Developer Toolset for a detailed list.

17. Are no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscriptions for Individuals tied to a specific release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

No. A subscription can be used for any of the currently supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Major releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are supported for ten years. After ten years, extended support is available, which requires a different type of subscription.

Note that subscriptions are typically purchased for a specific variant, such as a workstation or server. The no-cost subscription for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server incorporates functionality of all variants.

18. Can I use the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals to access earlier Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases?

The latest releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 and 8 are available from developers.redhat.com and are updated on a regular cadence per the Life Cycle. Older releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are available on the Red Hat Customer Portal. However, you will need to join the Red Hat Developer program to activate your no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals before downloading prior releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Getting your no-cost subscription

1. How do I get a no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals that offers Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

When you join the Red Hat Developer program, the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals will be automatically added to your account. This subscription enables access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, among other Red Hat software. We recommend you follow our Red Hat Enterprise Linux user guide on the Getting Started page.

2. I can’t find the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals. If I try to download Red Hat Enterprise Linux for the Red Hat Developer program site, I get a message that a subscription is required.

The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is only available through the Red Hat Developer program site. While the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is not available from the Red Hat Customer Portal, once you’ve joined the Red Hat Developer program on developers.redhat.com, you will have the same access to the Red Hat Customer Portal that is provided to all Red Hat subscriptions.

3. How can I check that the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals was added to my account?

You can view your subscriptions, their expiration dates, and attached system information in the management views of the Red Hat Customer Portal. This is the same tool for managing all subscriptions from Red Hat, paid, no-cost, and self-supported.

4. I registered at developers.redhat.com with my GitHub, Stack Overflow, LinkedIn, or social network account. How do I log into other Red Hat sites such as access.redhat.com?

Currently, only developers.redhat.com supports registration using a social network account. To log into other Red Hat sites, you will need a Red Hat login. When you register for the Red Hat Developer program at developers.redhat.com, if you don’t have a Red Hat account, one will be created for you. The username will be the email address you are registered under. The password for your Red Hat account will be set when you fill out the registration form. If you don’t remember your password, a "Forgot Password" link is available on the login page.

5. While trying to register and download at developers.redhat.com, I’m getting an error that says “Your information is valid, but we’re unable to upgrade your account.” How can I resolve this?

If you are having problems with your account, access the Contacting Red Hat for assistance section at the bottom of this FAQ.

Software download

1. Where can I download Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

You can download Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from https://developers.redhat.com/products/rhel/download or from the user guides on the Getting Started page. When you register and download Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server through developers.redhat.com, the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals will be automatically added to your Red Hat account.

2. How can I download earlier releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Currently, only the most recent releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are available from developers.redhat.com. All releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are available on the Red Hat Customer Portal. To get your no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals, you must first join the Red Hat Developer program at developers.redhat.com.

3. When I try to register on developers.redhat.com and download the software, I get an error that JavaScript is not enabled, but I’ve already got it enabled?

JavaScript is required for the registration and download process on developers.redhat.com. If JavaScript is enabled and you are still getting errors, it is possible that pop-up blockers, tracking blockers, or anti-malware software might be interfering. Try disabling them for developers.redhat.com.

4. I’ve enabled JavaScript and disabled pop-up blockers, but I still can’t download the software. Is there any other way to get it?

The download links at developers.redhat.com handle registration, adding the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals to your account, and the actual download. If this isn’t working for you, try these steps:

First, log in to the Red Hat Customer Portal. During registration at developers.redhat.com, a Red Hat account was created for you. The username will be the email address you are registered under. The password for your Red Hat account will be set when you fill out the registration form. If you don’t remember your password, a "Forgot Password" link is available on the login page.
Check whether the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals was added to your account by using the Subscriptions link. You should see one active subscription. When you click View, you should see the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals listed. If the subscription did not get added to your account, see Contacting Red Hat for assistance at the bottom of this FAQ.
If you have a subscription, download the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux Binary DVD from the product download page. If you do not have a current subscription, you will get an error that a subscription is required.

System installation

1. Why does the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals only include Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server gives you access to the widest variety of software to develop and test with, including server-oriented software such as containers. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server is essentially a superset of the other editions, so it is simple to configure the graphical desktop during or after install.

2. As a developer, I want a full graphical desktop. Can I get this with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server?

Yes. Our Product Documentation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux walks you through installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server. During the installation, you will select Server with a GUI, which will give you a full graphical desktop based upon GNOME.

3. What is the difference between the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server, Desktop, or Workstation?

The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals includes entitlements for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server, and numerous other Red Hat products—all for development purposes.

4. Do I need to repartition the disk on my existing system to try Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

You can use virtualization to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux on your existing system running Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, or Linux. Our product documentation for Red Hat Enterprise Linux covers VirtualBox, VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Linux KVM/libvirt. Some of those virtualization platforms are available at no cost for individual users.

5. Where can I get installation assistance and help with troubleshooting?

We have a number of resources that can help:

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide contains comprehensive installation and troubleshooting instructions.
An extensive collection of support resources are available in the knowledge base on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

System registration

1. I’ve registered at developers.redhat.com. Why do I need to register my system?

Registering your system attaches it to your Red Hat subscription. This allows your system to download software and updates from Red Hat.

2. What username and password do I use for registering my system?

During the registration and download process at developers.redhat.com, a Red Hat account was created if you didn’t already have one. The username is the email address you registered with. If you don’t remember the password, you can reset it using the “Forgot Password” link on the login page of access.redhat.com.

3. During system registration, when I click Attach, I get an error message: “No service level will cover all installed products,” or "User is not able to register with any orgs.” How do I resolve this?

These errors indicate that the Red Hat user you logged in as doesn’t have a current subscription. The no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals is added to your account when you join the Red Hat Developer program at developers.redhat.com. Check that your subscription has been added to your account at access.redhat.com/management. You should see an active subscription for a no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals. If a subscription was not added to your account, log in to developers.redhat.com and try the download again. Note: You do not need to download the whole file again, you can cancel the download after it starts.

Now, go back to access.redhat.com/management and see if the no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals was added to your account. If you are still unable to get a no-cost subscription for Individuals, see Contacting Red Hat for assistance at the bottom of the FAQ.

4. I am registered with developers.redhat.com and have downloaded and installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but now I can’t download any additional software or updates. I don’t have access to any Red Hat Enterprise Linux software repositories.

You need to register your system in order to download software and updates from Red Hat. During registration, your system will be attached to your no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals and the applicable software repositories will become accessible. For registration instructions, see Step 3 of How to register and subscribe a system to the Red Hat Customer Portal using Red Hat Subscription Manager for more detailed registration information.

5. Where do I find my registration number?

You can view information about your subscription including the registration number and expiration date using the subscription link on the Red Hat Customer Portal. You will need to use your Red Hat login. Your username will generally be the email address you registered under. The steps are:

Go to access.redhat.com/management.
Under My Subscriptions, click View All.
In the middle of the following page, you will see the 16-digit installation number that you need for registration and installation.

6. Where can I get help with registering my Red Hat Enterprise Linux system to attach it to my new no-cost Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals?