Demand More.

Posted Aug 5, 2009 7:28 UTC (Wed) by bvdm (guest, #42755)
In reply to: Demand More. by mmcgrath
Parent article: CentOS turbulence and enterprise Linux tradeoffs

The posting of the open letter on centos.org was an extreme measure. The content of the letter illustrated a profound crisis and most commentators found it quite shocking.

Compared with how the mainstream IT market flies off their handles whenever something sensational happens at Apple or Microsoft, Corbet's reporting on this has been factual and sober.

Seriously guys, the CentOS guys made a very tough call. The worst fallout was not here on LWN though - not by any measure.

Also, CentOS users have to acknowledge the moral reality that they are enjoying what others are essentially sponsoring (RHEL subscribers). This is their GPL-given right, but the defensiveness in some of the comments here are a bit perplexing when one considers this fact.

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Demand More.

Posted Aug 5, 2009 9:14 UTC (Wed) by hppnq (guest, #14462) [Link] (3 responses)

I was a bit surprised by the article, and found it somewhat lacking with respect to relevant facts and insights. Project governance is not an easy topic but I had expected somewhat more ambitious than "If you need serious support, you should pay for serious support". There must be a whole world out there where CentOS plays a significant role as the platform of choice for small IT companies and consultants, whose customers do not really care about the implementation or its name.

Surely, it is understood by CentOS users that there is no certainty the project will exist tomorrow, because of the dependence on the ability of specific people in the community to keep contributing to it. I feel the Free Software way out of forking or continuing a project may have been understressed, and this episode may have been a nice opportunity to look into the viability that option a bit more seriously. Instead, the article looked at the delays in applying fixes, which seems irrelevant.

So I wouldn't share the article's main conclusion, that there is a lesson to be learned here. CentOS is not chosen despite its weaknesses, but because of its strong points.

Demand More.

Posted Aug 5, 2009 14:00 UTC (Wed) by bvdm (guest, #42755) [Link] (2 responses)

I think that you are taking a very narrow view of Corbet's intent with the article.

You seem to imply that Corbet is arguing against CentOS's legitimate right or potential to continue to exist. My reading is that he is simply commenting on the validity of Red Hat's business model of offering payed support. And backing it up with real numbers. Timely updates is quite important for many security-sensitive businesses.

"If you need serious support, you should pay for serious support" is an entirely valid statement. You seem to have skipped over the word "serious". It's right there, twice! :) Cost-conscious companies out there that are yet paying for RHEL support obviously have different needs from that of most CentOS users.

Your presupposition seems to be that free software is more than pro-freedom; that it is necessarily anti-commercial. I am confident that even RMS will disagree with you on this.

Demand More.

Posted Aug 5, 2009 20:23 UTC (Wed) by hppnq (guest, #14462) [Link] (1 responses)

Ehhh... Perhaps I was not clear and you misunderstood what I wrote? It was me who put the "serious" there twice!

Demand More.

Posted Aug 6, 2009 5:25 UTC (Thu) by bvdm (guest, #42755) [Link]

No you were not clear. When you put that phrase in quotation marks it had every appearance of being a direct quote.