Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek) [LWN.net]

eWeek reports that Red Hat has decided to put the Fedora project under the control of an independent foundation. "Asked if there was any Fedora technology or patented technology that would not be available to the community, [Red Hat counsel Mark] Webbink said there was not at this point, but 'as we go forward, non-technology-related things like business method patents we register will not be available to the community.'"

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that the release of Fedora Core 4 has been pushed back to June 13.

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Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 3, 2005 18:43 UTC (Fri) by skvidal (subscriber, #3094) [Link]

The release got lagged b/c of a minor hold up with legal getting the code name for the release approved. It's silly, but necessary. :)

-sv

business method and software patents

Posted Jun 3, 2005 18:51 UTC (Fri) by rcbixler (guest, #11917) [Link]

It's not as if the community would have much use for business method
patents. But this comment of the Red Hat counsel's is yet one more
indication that our patent system is in need of reform and strict
oversight. The other recent indication, of course, is the granting of a
patent to Microsoft on the widely used technique of XML serialisation.

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 3, 2005 19:26 UTC (Fri) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

I thought Red Hat would only use patents defensively? Are they backing
away from that now? And business method patents of all things -- you can't
really sink much lower in patent worthiness in my eyes than a business
method patent.

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 3, 2005 19:55 UTC (Fri) by skvidal (subscriber, #3094) [Link]

I'm pretty sure red hat has only talked about using sw patents defensively. Business patents are a whole other issue and webbink is not saying they will use them, just that it's out there and it's not ruled out.

personally business patents do not worry me nearly as much b/c they're not binding up processes of scientific expansion like sw patents do.

-sv

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 9, 2005 9:54 UTC (Thu) by rjw (guest, #10415) [Link]

I hope you realise that

"Selling books over the Internet"

would be legitimate fodder for a business method patent. They are, if anything, even more insane than software patents : what the hell is a "business method"? It is an interaction between a group of human minds, that involves the transfer of assets - including purely intellectual ones such as market data or scientific facts : if that doesn't scare you, I have no idea what is wrong with you.

Patents should be at most limited to physical devices and processes.

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 3, 2005 22:49 UTC (Fri) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link]

It already does. http://www.fedorafaq.org/#reiserjfs

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 3, 2005 23:42 UTC (Fri) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link]

Um... The link you posted says reiserfs isn't supported.

I'm pretty sure it's still not supported because I'm on the bugzilla list for installer bugs. As of last Tuesday: "reiserfs is completely unsupported." (link)

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 4, 2005 0:56 UTC (Sat) by brouhaha (subscriber, #1698) [Link]

The link you posted says reiserfs isn't supported.

And that's different than anything else in the Fedora Core distribution because... ?

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 4, 2005 1:35 UTC (Sat) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link]

touche'

Red Hat Creates Fedora Foundation (eWeek)

Posted Jun 4, 2005 1:10 UTC (Sat) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link]

That depends on what you mean by supported. ie, do you want support (someone you can call to fix bugs) or do you want to distribution to install and run on reiserfs? I thought you meant the latter since 99% of the time when people complain about RedHat/Fedora and reiserfs it's because they don't see a reiserfs option in the installer and assume that reiserfs isn't in the kernel.