[keithpeter]

I know what you mean about 'feeling awkward'.

But think: how could Red Hat 'control' CentOS when CentOS is simply a clone of RHEL produced from the srpms that Red Hat have to distribute under the terms of the GPL?

As Karanbir says, 'we retain an upstream'.

There are other clones: Scientific Linux (CERN/Fermilabs and a lot of Universities) and Springdale Linux (Princeton/Institute of Advanced Study) are two other RHEL clones. And of course, there is Oracle Linux, a third clone, and one that provides commercial support.