News Redhat and CentOS will work together now.

BANHAMMER · Jan 8, 2014

Hell has frozen over in the world of Linux, the open source operating system that runs so many of the machines that underpin today’s online businesses.
Today, Linux vendor Red Hat announced that it’s entering a partnership to help develop CentOS, the project that cloned its flagship software in an effort to get around its license fees. The two operations have been at odds from the moment CentOS hit the web.
The day CentOS went live, its website included an explanation of the project that referenced Red Hat by name, and Red Hat promptly threatened legal action. The CentOS team removed the reference, referring to Red Hat only as Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor, or PNAELV for short. But things have now changed.
“Red Hat will contribute its resources and expertise in building thriving open source communities to the new CentOS Project to help establish more open project governance and a roadmap, broaden opportunities for participation, open pathways for contribution, and provide new ways for CentOS users and contributors to bring the power of open source innovation to all areas of the software stack,” the company said in an announcement.
Although several CentOS developers will join the Red Hat payroll, they won’t be part of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux team, according to an announcement on the CentOS mailing list. The move is expected to confer several advantages, such as the ability to bring its process for finding and fixing bugs into public view without fear of legal reprisals from Red Hat. The CentOS team has even already removed the 2005 announcement that Red Hat has threatened them with legal action back in 2005.
Red Hat’s business is built around on an operating system called Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or RHEL. The company charges a premium for this enterprise edition, providing customers with both software and dedicated support services. But the Linux kernel, and many other components that RHEL depends on, are subject to the Gnu Public License, which requires that any derivative code be published under the same free and open source license.
To comply with the license, Red Hat publishes the RHEL source code online, though not in a readily installable form. A group of volunteers took the RHEL source code and built a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux called CentOS — short for Community Enterprise Operating System — for those who want easy installation but are willing to live without official support. It has become one of the most popular versions of Linux. As of October, it’s the third most popular version of Linux on web servers, according to the w3tech website.
Red Hat, meanwhile, has grown to become the first billion dollar open source company, proving that there’s plenty of money to be made in free software. The company has long used some of its earnings to pay for the development of open source projects, such as the Linux kernel, the GNOME desktop environment for Linux. But who would have thought it would start paying people to clone its own software?
Click to expand...

Sauce: Hell Freezes Over in Linux Land as Red Hat Makes Nice With Its Clone | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Log in or Sign up

News Redhat and CentOS will work together now.

Share This Page

BANHAMMER Teh Almighty BanHammer Staff Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

News Redhat and CentOS will work together now.

Share This Page

BANHAMMER Teh Almighty BanHammer Staff Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches