> Most of you know that rPath now provides multiple OS bases by importing existing OSes built with other technology into a Conary repository. We have automatically-updated imports of SLES 10 and SLES 11 (both available by subscription only), CentOS 5, and Scientific Linux 5. We have imported a version of Ubuntu Hardy as a functional proof of concept that we can improve based on customer demand. We have done some work on importing a few other OS variants, too. We do this with a tool that we can make available as Open Source so that Foresight is not dependent on rPath to maintain the import of another more frequently-updated OS as a base.
It seems they already know how to overcome the hurdles for paying customers.
rPath, as you are probably aware, is a decently successful company that specializes it producing "linux appliances' for lots of different sorts of customers. They do this by taking a base OS and introducing it into a revision control system so that they can tailor it to the specifications and release it as a 'vmware player' guest and other such things.