[CentOS-devel] CentOS 8/7.7

Tue Sep 10 21:50:23 UTC 2019
Japheth Cleaver <cleaver at terabithia.org>

On 9/10/2019 2:21 PM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
> Red Hat and IBM need to know how you use CentOS Linux to make RHEL
> better or use it to influence buying RHEL .. why don't you blog about it.
>
> That goes for anyone who uses CentOS Linux and because CentOS Linux
> exists, you have RHEL subscriptions. And explain why you would not have
> those RHEL subscriptions if CentOS Linux did not exist.
>
> Thanks,
> Johnny hughes


I completely understand how this can help... but at the same time I feel 
like I really don't. The discussion goes beyond just the 7.7 and 8 
problems and reaches more into the heart of the relationship between 
RedHat, CentOS, and Fedora.

On the outside, we don't have much transparency as to how much internal 
communication is happening between all three entities.

Is RH not providing enough resources to the CentOS Project? Previous 
posts from @redhat.com addresses have indicated how important the EL 
ecosystem is already, so how much justification can someone on the 
outside provide for it?

For that matter, on the Fedora list it seems like it's primarily a 
resource question in ensuring the x86 build target remains viable, which 
seems rather odd for a $34B entity which should understand the 
importance of AltArch usage in tracking down subtle bugs. And of course 
Fedora itself seems prone to haphazardly adopting new tech with little 
or no thought to how it could affect downstream users (e.g., 
Modularity), despite it a) being the upstream for the RHEL release, and 
b) it having direct control over Fedora EPEL (which needs viable 
applicability to RHEL and CentOS).

It's hard to shake the impression that there's a structural problem at 
work here. And if so, that warrants more frank communication from RedHat 
employees and others involved who could be wearing all their various 
hats at once.

-jc