[Ma-linux] CentOS

Fri Jul 23 13:36:08 EDT 2010

If what is happening to OpenSolaris happened to RedHat, or more 
specifically, if RedHat got bought and scuttled or made somehow closed 
source in some way, CentOS would be in rough shape IMHO. They are not 
going to be able to develop at the pace RedHat does and even if they did 
they would drift away from compatibility with RedHat, which is their 
selling point. Reassembling a distro from SRPMs is not as much work as 
writing the source in those SRPMs.

My use of the word parasite was a mistake, I'm not sure what the right 
word is, but parasite sounds too negative. I like CentOS and run it myself.

The point I was trying to make was that CentOS needs it's "host 
organism" to survive, so even if nothing goes wrong at CentOS a change 
in the Red hat situation could put CentOS under.

On 07/23/2010 01:26 PM, James Ewing Cottrell 3rd wrote:
> Two points:
>
> [1] CentOS is not a "parasite", it is simply the "unbranded" version. 
> The GNU Copyleft requires Red Hat to publish their Source Code and 
> forbids them to Restrict it. Red Hat has ingeniously figured out how 
> to walk the line and still make a profit: by selling Service, 
> Subscriptions, and Trademarking their Artwork. The Barrier to taking 
> their Source and making a Comparable Product is mostly Tedious, but 
> not particularly difficult. The barrier to an end user to actually Use 
> this product is almost nothing, but the number of clones (White Box, 
> CentOS, Scientific) is low because of the effort to create an 
> unbranded distro in the first place.
>
> Something else that seems to matter to Business and Government is 
> Accountability. They want someone who has "certified" there software, 
> who they can call for support, and who they can pretend they can sue. 
> Smaller shops can use CentOS, and many do because they have the 
> expertise on staff, and either don't need the Red Hat support, or but 
> it on a limited basis.
>
> CentOS attracts fans the same way that free Grateful Dead tapes do. 
> But if you want a richer experience, you'll buy the Dick's Picks and 
> similar Officially Produced series instead.
>
> [2] If Red Hat dies, or gets weird, or bought by some horrible (for 
> example, a database) company, CentOS will simply continue their 
> distribution with the Code Base they have. Perhaps they were smart not 
> to call their distro OpenRHEL, in contrast to the OpenSuse folks. I 
> haven't been following that distro, so I'm not sure how well that 
> tracks SLES/SLED.
>
> Or maybe they won't...maybe they will become Ubuntu, or Debian, or 
> Gentoo guys; the point is, regardless of what happens to Red Hat, no 
> one can force them to stop.
>
> JIM
>
> On 7/22/2010 12:42 PM, John Holland wrote:
>> OK, good points. But....
>>
>> if Redhat dies CentOS dies. But CentOS could also die on its own with
>> RedHat still OK.
>>
>> If RedHat ever released something closed source (open core style) and no
>> free distribution
>> Centos would not be able to use it.
>>
>> Another possibility is to get a JBoss Developer Studio kit which costs
>> $95 and includes a RHEL license
>> "for development only". I don't know the exact details on this and
>> running a server on it that did anything
>> (eg email server) might not be legit.
>>
>>
>> On 07/22/2010 11:33 AM, Winter wrote:
>>    
>>>> mutant issue:
>>>> CentOS is sort of a parasite on RH and could cease to exist if RH
>>>> decided to give them grief or the project could just fall apart
>>>>
>>>>        
>>> RedHat is very good about honoring the letter and the spirit of FLOSS
>>> and make all source RPM's available to anyone for download.  If I had
>>> the gumption I could build my own system from their SRPMs.  I wouldn't
>>> call that being a parasite, I'd call that Free Software in action.
>>>
>>> I'm willing to bet CentOS increases the RedHat userbase.  RedHat
>>> benefits from the work of CentOS users, and they gain more
>>> administrators and developers who are savvy with The RedHat Way.
>>>
>>> There's an old but interesting discussion about this very subject on
>>> Slashdot:
>>>
>>> http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/04/1331247
>>>
>>>
>>> As for the project just falling apart...well, yes, that could happen.
>>> Indeed they had a shaky moment last summer.
>>>
>>> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10300222-92.html
>>>
>>> They got through it, however. And I'd think they're stronger for it.
>>>
>>> RedHat themselves could just fall apart as well.  Things happen.
>>>
>>>
>>> W.
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>>>
>>>      
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