- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
The two ways they have for getting source code are kind of funny and easy, and kind of makes fun of RHEL in pulling this maneuver, getting so much community backlash and ultimately having so little effect other than to negatively impact future business. But will they go further to violate the GPL? Or concede defeat? Say what you want, but to cut off paying customers if they share source code which is their right under the GPL is a really bad move that exposes the character of those running the company.
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but… The folks at RHEL aren’t factually wrong. They’re not violating any GPL clauses by putting source code behind a paywall, or by not putting in all the work they have been these past years to basically spoon-feed their source to rebuilders.
RHEL has contributed and continues to contribute a lot to the FOSS community. Take the time to read this RHEL blog post that was linked to by Rocky. By metrics, the majority of people taking advantage of rebuilders aren’t hobbyists or students trying to become familiar with RHEL, it’s professionals who are trying to avoid the pricetag associated with all the work and support and value RHEL provides. As they say, they’ve got a lot of people working on that project, and those people need to be paid for their work. Sure, they could take donations… Or you could pay for their product.
As far as I can tell, all this uproar about RHEL is basically the community getting up in arms because RHEL has decided to stop devoting resources to such activities as… De-branding their sources to make the lives of rebuilders easier? Rebuilders can still do their jam, they just have to put in a little more elbow grease now.
I haven’t seen anything about RHEL cutting off paying customers who share source. It wasn’t in the link you shared, it wasn’t in any of the links provided by Rocky in said blog post you shared. I’d love to read about it if I’ve missed it, and reform my opinions.
EDIT to add: folks below have provided links and quoted segments from RHEL’s license. I encourage everyone passing through to look them over, as they’re pretty damning and unambiguous in their language, and was the piece I was missing as I formed the above opinion. Thanks everyone for the discussion!
I agreed with this take. Just rebuild (plus giving support at cheaper rate than redhat) is kinda disrespect to hardworking opensource programmer at redhat. Sure redhat is also disrespecting users for canceling contract on those who shares the code, but it is their right and disrespect level is lower than those rebuilders. If they really want to clone redhat, they should copy centos stream, do the job make them stabler then sell it. It is better for opensource community than just to leech redhat.
This is… Kinda where I’m at right now. Yeah, it’s absolutely shitty of RHEL to violate GPL distribution clauses on GPL licensed code. We have to see exactly how that licensing plays out, and to what parts of their service they’re applying it to.
I am not opposed to FOSS companies making money off their hard work, though, and it’s hard to do when other people steal your homework and sell it for cheaper. My question to those in support of the rebuilders, and I ask this not as a challenge but from a place of ignorance without the time to devote to really digging too deeply into this right now, what do Rocky and the like add to the situation? They rebuild RHEL source and distribute it free or cheaply. But what are they adding to the equation? Are they giving back to the FOSS community or are they just leeching off of RHEL’s success?
I was telling a friend of mine, sometimes I feel like people forget the F in FOSS isn’t “free as in free beer,” it’s “free as in free speech” with “free beer” frequently tacked on as an extra, lol.
Don’t forget Red Hat wouldn’t have problem with the “rebuilders” eating their lunch if they didn’t kill CentOS in the first place. People that don’t need support would just use CentOS, and people that do need support would still buy RHEL instead of paying Rocky, Alma and Rocky wouldn’t exists, and Oracle Linux would’ve still a niche product. But greed (or IBM?) got the better of them and they killed CentOS to increase their short term revenue. Now they’re getting bitten in the ass for that short-sighted decision (NASA contract with Rocky) and double down with an even stupider decision. They will surely get bitten in the ass again over this decision and probably will triple down with an even more stupider decision.
I think it’s mentioned in red hat portal ToC. There are screenshots around the internet if you look for it.
Edit: found it
https://www.redhat.com/licenses/Appendix_1_Global_English_20230309.pdf
Nobody and nothing living forever is one of the reasons centralization is bad. But humans sadly like to flock.
RH is approaching the end of its life cycle. First they were hackers. Then they became a useful and aspiring business. Then RPM-based distributions were what made Linux not marginal anymore (though probably this also has something to do with Mandrake’s success). Then they became something in the center of things, connected to everything happening with Linux and other Unix-like systems (at least on desktop). Then they realized that and started milking that slowly. Then they became arrogant.