[CentOS] Red Hat CEO: Go Ahead, Copy Our Software

[Johnny Hughes]

On 08/15/2013 03:12 PM, Robert Arkiletian wrote:
> http://www.businessinsider.com/red-hat-ceo-go-ahead-copy-our-software-2013-8
>
> Title says is all. Nice to know RH understands and accepts the
> relationship between CentOS and RHEL.C
>
> Although it is complex. After all, if too many choose CentOS, there
> may no longer be a CentOS. However, I don't think I would refer to
> CentOS as a "parasite" as the author Matt Asay does. More appropriate
> to call it symbiotic.
>
> Is the relationship a 50/50 affair? Not sure.
>
> Complicating matters even more is Oracle Unmistakable Linux.

I think that Red Hat understands the benefit that they get from CentOS,
as expressed by Mr, Whitehurst's statement:

"CentOS is one of the reasons that the RHEL ecosystem is the default. It
helps to give us an ubiquity that RHEL might otherwise not have if we
forced everyone to pay to use Linux. So, in a micro sense we lose some
revenue, but in a broader sense, CentOS plays a very valuable role in
helping to make Red Hat the de facto Linux."

Its obvious the benefit that CentOS gets from Red Hat (without those
sources, publicly released, CentOS would be extremely hard ... almost
impossible).  SUSE does not release their enterprise sources and there
is no SLES clone because of it.

We do want people to use CentOS for everything they feel comfortable
using it for (obviously), but we also would recommend that people use
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for things where they want a service level
agreements or the specific certifications (Like Common Criteria EAL,
etc.) that Red Hat has spent tons of money and effort to get.  We would
also recommend the Red Hat training and certification program for people
who want to get career training that is applicable to CentOS.

The bottom line ... Robert is correct, the relationship is certainly
symbiotic and not parasitic.  Red Hat (the company) needs to make money,
and software that is built on the same code base is available for free
as well.  It is a win-win ... which is exactly what the GPL provides for.


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