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by linuxftw 1088 days ago
Red Hat currently releases all sources as if they were GPL sources, but that may stop in the future. EG, an Apache 2 licensed project, they're under no obligation to release the source, but they currently choose to.

That will be the next move for the RHEL sources IMO. They'll probably stop releasing all non-GPL licensed code from RHEL proper.
1 comments
Tepix 1088 days ago
RedHat is unlikely to do that.

After all, why would anyone still use RedHat if their competetive advantage (i.e. open source) is lost?

As a RedHat customer i want to be able to take their packages (which include the open source software and their changes to it) and rebuild them from source with both their and my patches whenever i feel like doing so.

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elteto 1087 days ago
If you are a paying customer you can get the SRPMs, so nothing has/will change for you.

This will definitely be one of their possible next steps, as they seem bent on locking down RHEL.

I see people frequently disparage the GPL here in HN and promote less encumbered alternatives. Well, _this_ is why the GPL is important, and it will become even more relevant in the future.

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Tepix 1086 days ago
The parent poster was suggesting that RedHat stops releasing the non GPL source code: "Red Hat currently releases all sources as if they were GPL sources, but that may stop in the future."

This would mean no more SRPMs.

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tsimionescu 1088 days ago
Their competitive advantage compared to whom, Windows? Their competitive advantage compared to other Linux distros or to the BSDs is enterprise support, not being open source (all of them are). Apple doesn't even sell their OS at all. So who are you comparing RH to?
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Tepix 1086 days ago
Yes, the competitive advantage when compared to non-open source operating systems.

If they stop publishing non-GPL source code, they have a distinct disadvantage when compared to open source alternatives.

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that_guy_iain 1087 days ago
>After all, why would anyone still use RedHat if their competetive advantage (i.e. open source) is lost?

Who do you think finds that a competitive advantage? What company is saying "You know what, we can use Red Hat spend millions and worst case we just hire some devs to continue the work?" I doubt any are.

Their competitive is what support so many packages and companies can not worry about issues. Open source has no part in that.

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Tepix 1086 days ago
In my experience there are edge cases every now and then where a company needs a custom solution and achieves it by patching open source software.

The RedHat support will fix issues, they will not add new features only you need.

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that_guy_iain 1086 days ago
Realistically, if you need custom features to your linux distro, you wouldn't be paying for Red Hat, the moment you modify something your system becomes unsupportable and not in compliance and a whole bunch of other things that are the reason you pay for RHEL.

If you're at the level of needing custom operating system modifications you're probably better suited to finding a distro you can fork. Not pay for RHEL.

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