Red Hat Now Limiting RHEL Sources To CentOS Stream

[Icculus93]

Sure, but all it takes is a single customer to request the source code, remove all logos and trademarked words, and push the code to any online repository for anyone to see, compile and generally use as per the GPL license.

So correct me if I am wrong, but RedHat is essentially betting on the fact that nobody will buy a RHEL license. request the source code, and then start creating off-brand clones of RHEL? Can't Rocky Linux do that for example?

None of that is necessary, you don't have to buy RHEL to get the source code. The same source that is used to build RHEL is also used to build Alma and Rocky...from the original article cited:

CentOS Stream will now be the sole repository for public RHEL-related source code releases.

...with the CentOS Stream git repository located here: https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream

Where does Alma get it's sources from? Let's check the Alma Linux FAQ: https://wiki.almalinux.org/FAQ.html

We clone the upstream sources from the CentOS git repositories. These are the same source that Red Hat uses to build their packages.

Where does Rocky get it's sources from? https://wiki.rockylinux.org/archive/...binary-package

1: Obtain the RHEL sources via SRPM or CentOS Git

[RahulSundaram]

I myself, and many other are under the impression that RHEL =/= centos stream where rhel is more stable, has a longer life span, more controlled updates etc that stuff like alma relied on. as per rhel's on materials on the subject, will RHEL be commiting the source code from their downstream to centOS stream as tags?

CentOS stream other than the development branch is just point updates that are headed towards RHEL a bit more earlier in time since CentOS Stream is the direct upstream for RHEL. Other than embargoed security bugs, this is already how they are handling it to my understanding. The rebuilders are already relying on CentOS stream git repos, they just need to make minor adjustments at best to use a different mirror.

[qarium]

I think unfortunately the whole Linux ecosystem is doomed. I wish there was a uniform UNIX-like operating system with microkernel. I am quite fed up with Linux fragmentation.

honestly the fragmentation goes down not up... in the past there where multible X11 implementations today like everyone use wayland.

in the past many distros had different init system like system V and the bsd style init and so one and so one. but if you do market research from fedora to debian all use SystemD right now.

and also flatpak is the final step to defeat microsoft monopole in binary compatible operating system because flatpak at first time in history makes linux the same long time stable solution with binary compatibility compared to windows's plattform.

now you say but fragmentation is still there because of "snaps" of ubuntu... then i have to ask you do market research and you will find out that outside of ubuntu no one use snaps and on ubuntu they need to force people into the snap ecosystem because not even the ubuntu user want this shit.

snaps is clearly inferior to flatpak just do your research and you will find out.

now as soon as snap is death like "MIR" vs wayland then Linux fragmentation is officially death.

and also do analyse who do spend money on snap to make it compete agaist flatpak ??? its only microsoft who spend money on canonical to fuel the linux fragmentation war.

if you EVER remove evil microsoft from this game the linux fragmentation war is over.

[qarium]

They're only distributing binaries to paying customers. They're only distributing source code to paying customers.
The AGPL is a poisonous and incoherant non-free licence. Nobody uses it. Nobody at redhat is serving files using it.

I advice people to use the AGPLv3 license ;-) it makes people angry who dislike the idea of opensource and free software.

and this is very good thing.

[kurkosdr]

None of that is necessary, you don't have to buy RHEL to get the source code. The same source that is used to build RHEL is also used to build Alma and Rocky...from the original article cited:



...with the CentOS Stream git repository located here: https://git.centos.org/

That's what I don't understand: Isn't CentOS Stream supposed to be an experimental almost rolling-release kind of distro while RHEL is supposed to be more stable?

EDIT: Never mind, my question was answered (by the first comment in this page) while I was typing it.

[kurkosdr]

Bad because distributions like Oracle, Scientific, Rocky and Alma can no longer freeload off Red Hat's development efforts.

Now that's a fucking good thing to me.

The only people who are pissed off at this are those who wanted to freeload off RHEL without paying a cent.

Now it's time of reading bolsheviks why it's bad for companies to make money out of their software development and services, even when they commit a lot to open source.

These guys just want everything ungratefully free of charge.

Ahem, the GPL is a license and it uses capitalist concepts like copyright to work. And without all the GPL code they got for $0 RedHat would've been two drinking buddies in a bar dreaming of someday releasing their own OS.

[qarium]

We run a mix of RHEL7 (soon to be RHEL9) and CentOS7/Rocky9 at my company. Production boxes all get RHEL. Throwaway dev/qa instances all go on CentOS/Rocky since those instances only live for hours/days and keeping track of licenses for transient instances would be a pain.
We're still paying through the nose for RHEL support and production RHEL licenses along with separate licensing of their JBoss EAP software. Moving to close up the RHEL sources to block/hobble distros like Rocky is just going to make us reconsider whether we want to run RHEL at all or switch to something else.

yes right thats the point. i also can not unterstand the move of IBM/RedHat... i for example switched to Fedora RPM based distro from Debian but i really think about going back to Debian because i see this move agaist RHEL alternatives as a bad thing.

[Anvil]

this is when we say Goodbye to Fedora

[Jabberwocky]

I get sucked into a part-time project and I come back to Phoronix to see this, ****ing sad news. When a company lies through their teeth like Oracle did with Sun Microsystems, like Facebook did with Whatsapp and now like IBM is doing to Redhat then talent leaves. People go work for companies with better ethics.

• Acquisition positions IBM as the leading hybrid cloud provider and accelerates IBM’s high-value business model, extending Red Hat’s open source innovation to a broader range of clients
• IBM preserves Red Hat’s independence and neutrality; Red Hat will strengthen its existing partnerships to give customers freedom, choice and flexibility
• Red Hat’s unwavering commitment to open source remains unchanged
• Together, IBM and Red Hat will deliver next-generation hybrid multicloud platform

https://www.redhat.com/en/about/pres...d-cloud-future

The Redhat engineers are really rock stars in the open source Linux world. Everything from graphics to infra, you know who you are. Redhat has done a wonderful job at finding you and giving you the freedom to improve things. If Redhat becomes less popular then this innovation will also slowly die down which in turn will leave Linux in general in a worse state. I wonder who will be the first engineer to move...

Java, MySQL, WhatsApp is still going but it doesn't have the innovation that we saw before these projects were sold. Smaller projects like VirtualBox is not maintained properly plagued with old unfixed CVEs. The silver lining is Kotlin/GraalVM, NoSQL/Postgres and Signal I suppose. Perhaps we might see the same thing with this situation.

To everyone thinking that Alma or Rocky will be the solution... I can only hope for that I really do but realistically the engineering costs are just too get a proper 1:1 clone IMO. People might be able to get away with some workaround to will allow Alma/Rocky to function so we will see what comes from it. In the long run without a workaround I really don't think you can easily replicate the superb quality of long term packages that RHEL provides.

[jorgepl]

Will this have any effect on the 10 years of support Alma was supposed to be enjoying?