Also, I have my Linux box (Redhat 8.0) set up so that it can automatically sense any new software patches and upgrades when I run in root mode. So in one sense, Redhat "spies" on my system configuration just as Microsoft "spies" on my Windows 2000 configuration. Nope. RedHat's RHN service running on your PC downloads a list of all available updates from RedHat's servers, then your system decides what to install.