On 12/26/20 1:15 AM, Mike McGrath wrote:

If you truly wanted to keep that firewall in place.  You, or someone,
should have complained two years ago when the CentOS infrastructure team
formally joined the RHEL team as "CPE".  There were no objections to
that and it was largely seen as a positive move by everyone I've talked
to.  If that was something so important to you, I think it's on you to
pay attention and raise those concerns when they were happening. 

Even before CentOS was bought by Red Hat, I have seen people who wanted
to join building efforts (mostly?) turned away. CentOS devs were and
stayed exclusive club doing magic behind armored doors. Various reasons
were given, keeping security high, preventing other cloning projects
from getting better, etc. I did not care enough to speak up, especially
since it would not have maid difference.

That is the reason CloudLinux promised foundation that will keep
complete procedure and ALL tools to clone RHEL accessible, anyone will
be able to recreate their effort (good luck with that unintended result
you created, your shot foot must start to hurt *big time*)

Then CentOS Board decided to sell CentOS to Red Hat, same as now there
was no discussion, no debate, community was not asked at all. Since it
was said CentOS Linux will not be killed, and people working hard got
their financial reward, I accepted they did not ask anyone and moved on.
And accepted that any wish, complaint or demand of the community that
was not in the interest of CentOS Board would be simply dismissed, so
why bother raising any when I still got what interested me, free RHEL clone?

I believe that same sentiment was on minds of majority of CentOS users,
as long as it serves our interests we would allow them to do what ever
they want. I never heard of Springdale and I did not like Oracle as a
company, so CentOS was the only free RHEL clone in my mind.

So if you are truly asking why no one objected to what CentOS Board
decided without asking anyone in the community, it was pointlessness of
the effort.

This time around my interest WAS violated, but considering the futility
of the opposition, I will just find me another RHEL clone to use. I am
staying in CentOS community for another 4 years because I have several
CentOS 7 servers, and I might even install 1 more in next few days, to
replace mail CentOS 6 server. 4 years will be enough for it.

The only reason I am replying on CentOS mailing lists is to keep you Red
Hat employees from claiming victory and making unfounded conclussions
since all opposition decided ti is pointless in arguing with you, you
will not prolong "CentOS Linux 8" life to 2029. I can be stubborn in
that regard when someone tries to play me for a fool (like with
"outdated document/promise" crap).