CentOS Project joins Red Hat

[evert]

Pretty big news:

http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2014-January/020100.html

One interesting piece:

QUOTE

some of the existing CentOS Core members are moving to take up roles at Red Hat, as a part of their sponsorship of the CentOS Project, allowing these people to work on the Project as their primary job function.

Although much will stay the same, CentOS will have more direct access to Red Hat resources.

For SL, this does not change that much, I guess. But with this change, I would propose to think about taking CentOS as a base for SL, and build upon CentOS directly, instead of building only on the RHEL sources. SL could still offer stuff like artwork and some additions on top of CentOS. Just my 2c though.

[hadrons123]

SL basing on centOS would only delay SL and I don't see any direct benefits.

[Viper550]

The only way to really "purchase" an open source project is to

1. Hire all its major contributors
2. Acquire rights to its trademarks.

They've done both.

[joutlan]

I've been following this on the SL Mail List also. Some think that RH wants to make sure that CentOS is not 'quite' the same as RHEL.

[evert]

@hadrons123: yes, but if centos can use the infra of RH, then they can have quick (security) updates and so on. it would be a waste not to make use of that. on the other hand, some independence is also important.

@joutlan: nobody knows for now, but if they change centos too much compared to RHEL, than SL will see an increased user base and after their investment into centos i guess that's not what they are after. the future will teach us.

anyhow, SL now has better artwork, a few very handy changes, AND more independence

[tux99]

I'm not sure what this will mean for the future of CentOS, I'll have to read up more about this change and see how things develop before deciding whether this is a good development or not.

I don't think this should make any difference for SL and the way it's developed, IMHO SL should continue to base itself on the original RHEL source rpms as they have always done.

What could happen is that some CentOS users might move over to SL if this change will affect CentOS negatively in some way, so this might increase the popularity of SL.

Anyway, it's great that CentOS is not the only RHEL clone so that there is always alternatives in case CentOS starts going downhill.

[+X^N]

From R.H. press release : RALEIGH, N.C. – January 7, 2014 http://www.redhat.com/about/news/press-archive/2014/1/red-hat-and-centos-join-forces

QUOTE

Webcast Brian Stevens, executive vice president and chief technology officer, Red Hat, will host a webcast to discuss today's announcement at 5:00 p.m. ET on January 7, 2014. Following remarks, press and analysts are invited to participate in a question and answer session. To join the webcast or view the replay after the event, visit: vts.inxpo.com

from the FAQ in that press_release : http://community.redhat.com/centos-faq/
... a lot of good info. ...

QUOTE

Will CentOS releases be synchronously available with those of Red Hat Enterprise Linux? No, CentOS releases will follow shortly after the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux source. Release timing may also be based on the release schedule determined by the project to include additional components. ... When is the next CentOS release? The next CentOS release should arrive shortly following the next relevant update of projects such as OpenStack or products such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

'enjoy'

[tux99]

From the FAQ on redhat.com: http://community.redhat.com/centos-faq/

QUOTE

While CentOS is derived from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux codebase, CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are distinguished by divergent build environments, QA processes, and, in some editions, different kernels and other open source components. For this reason, the CentOS binaries are not the same as the Red Hat Enterprise Linux binaries.

This is either plain FUD (it's sad to see Redhat adopt FUD as a marketing strategy just like every other evil corporation does) or it's a sign for things to come. Fact is the Centos devs have so far been extraordinarily dedicated and successful in making sure that the Centos binaries are identical with the RHEL binaries and this is one of the primary reasons for Centos popularity.

QUOTE

The two also have very different focuses. While CentOS delivers a distribution with strong community support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a stable enterprise platform with a focus on security, reliability, and performance

And this is clearly what Redhat's wish is for what Centos should become, but it's not the current reality.

The current reality is that Centos provides a stable enterprise platform with a focus on security, reliability, and performance just like RHEL and it has become so popular due to it being reliably 100% compatible with RHEL that it has been affecting adoption of RHEL by businesses (I know of cases myself where fairly large businesses chose Centos over RHEL since they found it's less expensive to hire some Centos experts than to pay for RHEL support for hundreds of servers) .

So to me it looks like Redhat 'bought' Centos in order to change Centos into something that doesn't directly affect their revenues anymore.

[redman]

QUOTE

While CentOS delivers a distribution with strong community support ...

Well ... I do not want to start a war here, but I do not completely agree with this.
Development is not done by the community like Fedora but by a small closed group. And the only support is that there is comes from their forums.
And given the rumours we hear on how things go on their forums, the word "strong" should be taken differently.

But, having said that, I congratulate the CentOS team on the good news.
There is a saying, if you can't beat them, join buy them

[joutlan]

snip////

CODE

[quote]The two also have very different focuses. While CentOS delivers a distribution with strong community support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a stable enterprise platform with a focus on security, reliability, and performance[/QUOTE] And this is clearly what Redhat's wish is for what Centos should become, but it's not the current reality. The current reality is that Centos provides a stable enterprise platform with a focus on security, reliability, and performance just like RHEL and it has become so popular due to it being reliably 100%  compatible with RHEL that it has been affecting adoption of RHEL by businesses (I know of cases myself where fairly large businesses chose Centos over RHEL since they found it's less expensive to hire some Centos experts than to pay for RHEL support for hundreds of servers) . So to me it looks like Redhat 'bought' Centos in order to change Centos into something that doesn't directly affect their revenues anymore.[/quote]

This makes the most sense to me, Tux.

[joutlan]

Also, they'll have a hard time "buying up" SL as the programmers are FERMI LAB employees...(Govt Owned)

[John Cuppi]

QUOTE (tux99 @ Jan 8 2014, 06:17 PM)

So to me it looks like Redhat 'bought' Centos in order to change Centos into something that doesn't directly affect their revenues anymore.

I saw the same thing you did and came to similar conclusions... we'll just have to see.

QUOTE

Also, they'll have a hard time "buying up" SL as the programmers are FERMI LAB employees...(Govt Owned)

Correct, although if you remember Dawson was hired by Red Hat and he left his job with Fermi Lab. Not sure if they made him a job offer or he applied, but still.

[joutlan]

JC, I think Troy was brainwashed by FERMI prior to leaving. Troy, if you're reading this old buddy, j/k !!

[Viper550]

QUOTE (Jcink @ Jan 13 2014, 08:58 PM)

Correct, although if you remember Dawson was hired by Red Hat and he left his job with Fermi Lab. Not sure if they made him a job offer or he applied, but still.

Actually I think it was more about cloud computing stuff, not EL

[Screwballl]

This is also how things came to so many problems with *nix in the late 80s... big companies buying up and trying to commercialize (and use proprietary code) anything using unix code, to the point some would license it and sell it, suing anyone who used similar code.
Linux is about the community working independently, not answering to some big company who is buckling to pressure from big brother groups to compromise our security and privacy (which seems to be what is happening with most of the major distros like RH, Ubuntu, etc).