Hi everybody,
The “CPE” name is a commonly used identifier in the Fedora and CentOS
communities. Inside Red Hat, it meant a specific set of individuals and
roles reporting into common management. We recently had a reorg that
brought it and other community roles together. There is a new name for the
whole group: Community Linux Engineering.
To be clear, no one is changing roles as part of this; all the things Red
Hatters did before the reorg and rename remain the same after.
This change does bring a question with it: In our docs and conversations,
should we just search and replace the CPE name with “CLE”? My answer is a
resounding no! The external CPE branding unintentionally contributed to
some common misconceptions:
-
“Red Hat teams are separate from the community.” Red Hatters can, and
indeed many do, play key roles in the community Linux space, regardless of
team affiliation.
-
“Community members can’t take part in the same Fedora activities that
Red Hat employees can.” The reality is that most activities are or can
be open to all.
-
“There is a ‘Fedora team’ or a ‘CentOS team’ solely responsible for All
the Things.” This would be impossible – it’s way too much. We all are
part of making these distributions and communities succeed and grow.
As this name change takes effect, I hope we can embrace names which reflect
what we are doing together, the myriad skills and interests and activities
that come together to make something we can all use and enjoy. So while
I’m pleased to announce CLE, I hope you’ll promptly forget about the name
and instead focus on why you’re here in this community, and find yourself
able to pursue your interests as we build amazing things together.