Hello. Since CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor, can that "prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor" delay the release of the source of a specific package? If yes, for how long? Thanks
Jaime Ventura wrote:
Hello. Since CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor, can that "prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor" delay the release of the source of a specific package? If yes, for how long?
For components that aren't under the GPL there is no requirement for them to release source at all. However their policy has always been to make the source available and the good will of their customer base has been built on that. And of course, most of the underlying content is available from its original 'upstream' source if you can do without the rpm packaging.
Hi. Thanks for your reply. Im using CentOS for almost 2 years, and that's the only topic is worrying me. I understand this is more a "legal" question other than technical. I mean, with GPL you have to deliver the source if you deliver a binary. But is it legal to deliver the source say one week after the binary? Thanks.
Les Mikesell wrote:
Jaime Ventura wrote:
Hello. Since CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor, can that "prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor" delay the release of the source of a specific package? If yes, for how long?
For components that aren't under the GPL there is no requirement for them to release source at all. However their policy has always been to make the source available and the good will of their customer base has been built on that. And of course, most of the underlying content is available from its original 'upstream' source if you can do without the rpm packaging.
Jaime Ventura wrote:
Hi. Thanks for your reply. Im using CentOS for almost 2 years, and that's the only topic is worrying me.
Other than for critical security updates it isn't much to worry about. These boxes will run for years without any changes.
I understand this is more a "legal" question other than technical. I mean, with GPL you have to deliver the source if you deliver a binary. But is it legal to deliver the source say one week after the binary?
The "prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor" could make it very difficult to clone their OS and stay within legal bounds. I think it would be suicide for them to try, because the more people who think that commands like: system-config-service_name service service_name start|stop|restart chkconfig service_name on|off rpm -U package_name etc. are the way to manage a Linux box the more potential customers they have for their services. People who haven't gotten used to those commands could just as easily run a Debian-derived system or Suse.