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Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

theregister.com

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Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#11

Post by zshrc »

reacharavindh wrote: post #3

Honestly, I’m tired of this. We were going to use Rockylinux as a base for the new version of our research cluster at a University used by researchers from all over the world. We are a tightly funded shop with money allocated as parts of research grants. We were running off of CentOS because a few tools that researchers use were built “for” RHEL by the commercial vendors. Since Redhat now considers users of CentOS “f…

Have you tried reaching out to them about obtaining an Academic Research subscription? I believe they offer those. Can’t speak as to how much they are though.

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#12

Post by CommitSyn »

pipo234 wrote: post #2

Would it be possible to: 1. create a free dev account 2. get the sources 3. merge changes into rocky repo 4. have the account terminated by the Hat 5. goto 1? Subversive, but mostly in compliance with GPL and Red Hat EULA... Ish. Kinda. But I probably made an error here. Who can point it out?

Possible sure. Also illegal and would get the company shut down.

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#13

Post by catchnear4321 »

nuker wrote: post #4
pipo234 wrote: post #2

Would it be possible to: 1. create a free dev account 2. get the sources 3. merge changes into rocky repo 4. have the account terminated by the Hat 5. goto 1? Subversive, but mostly in compliance with GPL and Red Hat EULA... Ish. Kinda. But I probably made an error here. Who can point it out?

4. Have the user terminated by IBM lawyers.

without sufficient caffeine or context, this line reads like a cyberpunk plot.

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#14

Post by socrates137 »

> Setting aside the large numbers of angry people who don't really understand how open source licenses work, our impression is that the core issue here is that there are an awful lot of people who feel that simply because this is Linux, they have some kind of right to get it for free. Unfortunately, they don't. That is not what the "free" in Free Software means, and it never was.

Something about this irks me. I realize there are some differences between FOSS, FLOSS, and open source. And I realize sometimes there’s some ambiguity there. But I’m still not sure I agree.

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#15

Post by nuker »

catchnear4321 wrote: post #13
nuker wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4. Have the user terminated by IBM lawyers.

without sufficient caffeine or context, this line reads like a cyberpunk plot.

William Gibson! Lawyers are also execution branch in any corporate vassalage area. They carry the Licence, pocket Bible and FN Five-seven.

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#17

Post by sheepdestroyer »

reacharavindh wrote: post #3

Honestly, I’m tired of this. We were going to use Rockylinux as a base for the new version of our research cluster at a University used by researchers from all over the world. We are a tightly funded shop with money allocated as parts of research grants. We were running off of CentOS because a few tools that researchers use were built “for” RHEL by the commercial vendors. Since Redhat now considers users of CentOS “f…

Like for the vast majority of use cases, unless you really need the bugs present in RHEL, you should be even better served by CentOS Stream than you were on old CentOS.

It's just a few patches ahead RHEL, with packaged builds using the exact same Infra and QA process.

It's not RHEL N+1 beta as some disingenuous people have argued

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#18

Post by pipo234 »

CommitSyn wrote: post #12
pipo234 wrote: post #2

Would it be possible to: 1. create a free dev account 2. get the sources 3. merge changes into rocky repo 4. have the account terminated by the Hat 5. goto 1? Subversive, but mostly in compliance with GPL and Red Hat EULA... Ish. Kinda. But I probably made an error here. Who can point it out?

Possible sure. Also illegal and would get the company shut down.

I'm not sure if this is illegal.

The developer (john doe) honours the EULA up to the point where the sources are on his computer and cancels hist account (or has RedHat do that). From there, it's just GPL code that can be re-destributed freely (save for RedHat trademarks and licensed assets).

The company (rocky, alma, springdale, oracle) is in it's full right to accept any changes and merge them into their GPL code base.

Sure the ethics are questionable, but I suppose the IBM lawyers would have a hard time prohibiting this in the EULA while simultaneously honouring GPL and welcoming contributions from anonymous developers.

But I suppose I'm just too dumb to see that my cunning plan isn't very cunning at all. :-)

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#19

Post by polski-g »

pipo234 wrote: post #2

Would it be possible to: 1. create a free dev account 2. get the sources 3. merge changes into rocky repo 4. have the account terminated by the Hat 5. goto 1? Subversive, but mostly in compliance with GPL and Red Hat EULA... Ish. Kinda. But I probably made an error here. Who can point it out?

How does RedHat know said user is the one who distributed the changes? If the changes are given to Team Rocky on CD via USPS, there would be know way to know which RedHat user is the one giving changes to Rocky.

Re: Rocky Linux claims to have found 'path forward' from CentOS source purge

#20

Post by nuker »

pipo234 wrote: post #18
CommitSyn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible sure. Also illegal and would get the company shut down.

I'm not sure if this is illegal . The developer (john doe) honours the EULA up to the point where the sources are on his computer and cancels hist account (or has RedHat do that). From there, it's just GPL code that can be re-destributed freely (save for RedHat trademarks and licensed assets). The company (rocky, alma, springdale, oracle) is in it's full right to accept any changes and merge them into their GPL code…

> IBM lawyers would have a hard time

Never underestimate your enemy. (c) Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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