[CentOS-devel] [CentOS] CentOS 8 future

Greetings,

----- Original Message -----
> I believe, for Stream and not for Linux, that the possibility of a
> SIG to continue building the source code could exist if the community
> steps up and provides people in a Special Interest Group.  If there is no
> community volunteers, then this will not happen.  Again .. this would
> be for Stream and in the 2024 time frame.
> 
> We have SIGs now .. very few of them are non-Red Hat .. the Xen part
> of the Virt SIG being one example of a non-Red Hat one that does exist.
> 
> So:
> 
> 1) After the full process for Stream 8 is in place and RHEL Engineers
> are actually directly doing the code commits into the CentOS Stream
> git branches .. should be some time the 1st QTR 2021.
> 
> 2) As we get closer to the end of the full support phase of RHEL 8
> (May 7, 2019 + 5 years .. so likely May 31, 2024) we need a SIG to ask to
> form who would take over building the source code.
> 
> So far, we have had very few members of the community actually become
> part of SIGs.  I have no idea if anyone will volunteer to do it.  Red
> Hat has said they will stop funding it at the end of the full support
> phase.
> 
> Any details would need to be worked out based on the number of people
> in the SIG, if one exists, to keep doing the stream builds. What that
> process is exactly and where the builds would live would all need to
> be worked out.

Thanks for the response BUT it seem to conflict with the answers to questions #13 and #14 on the FAQ (https://centos.org/distro-faq/).  Or perhaps the FAQ is in error?  In case that gets updated or changed, I'll quote it here to show what it was at the time of writing:

- - - -
Q13: Can I start up a SIG that will maintain CentOS Stream 8 after RHEL8 reaches the end of Full Support?

A: We will not be putting hardware, resources, or asking volunteers to work towards that effort, nor will we allow the CentOS brand to be used for such a project. Once RHEL8 reaches the end of full support, CentOS Stream 8 will be retired from build servers, community build systems, primary mirror sites (copies will remain on vault.centos.org), and other places within our ecosystem. Having SIGs build against multiple streams, and packaging/distributing multiple streams, once they are no longer active, is a distraction from what we want to be our main focus - the active stream that precedes the next RHEL release.

Q14: Can the CentOS community continue to develop/rebuild CentOS linux?

A: We will not be putting hardware, resources, or asking for volunteers to work towards that effort, nor will we allow the CentOS brand to be used for such a project, as we feel that it dilutes what we are trying to do with the refocus on CentOS Stream. That said, the code is open source and we wouldn’t try to stop anyone from choosing to use it or build their own packages from the code.
- - - -

TYL,
-- 
Scott Dowdle
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Belgrade, MT 59714
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