[CentOS] CentOS for commercial use

Peter Farrow peter at farrows.org
Mon Apr 4 23:16:59 UTC 2005


I used RH9 on all my commercial servers previously to Centos, and I 
bought paid copies for each even though I could have just downloaded it 
because I wanted to support the cause.  However Red Hat then dumped me 
high and dry with no further release after RH9 leaving me a huge bill to 
upgrade to RHEL for each machine, for support that I had never used in 
the past anyway....so Centos was a perfect choice....

So I don't see myself as leach moreover I see my self as an astute 
business man not paying for something I don't need.  I have contributed 
to the community and will help with any question posed that I feel I can 
answer adequately.    This is far more valuable than paying some 
commercial organisation driven by share holders selling me something I 
don't want or need...

Aleksandar Milivojevic wrote:

> Collins Richey wrote:
>
>> I would like to know how those of you who use CentOS in commercial
>> endeavors justify the decsion - ethics, community vs. vendor support,
>> etc., etc. I've heard many comments to the effect that we CentOS users
>> are just leaches, since RedHat does the major work.
>
>
> The major work is done mostly by community.  Red Hat, or any other 
> distribution, is built from free software that is developed and 
> maintainted by many volunteers who are not affiliated (or paid by) Red 
> Hat in any way.  Yes, there are people paid by Red Hat who also 
> contribute, but still, vast majority of work is done by community.
>
> What Red Hat sells is support.  And really, there is nothing else they 
> can sell you.  So, I don't consider people using RHEL clones to be 
> leaches.  They are simply not buying part of the system that they 
> don't need.  Even with commercial software (Windoze, Oracle, etc), 
> support is something you pay extra annually on top of what you pay for 
> the software itself.  If you want it, you pay for it.  If you don't 
> want it, you don't pay for it.
>
> And you know, consulting, support, training, and certifications is a 
> big and profitable business on its own.  Even Microsoft is probably 
> making way more money on it, than on selling Windblows OS.  You can 
> make a very good money out of it, and if Red Hat as company is managed 
> as it should be, than Red Hat doesn't need to worry about its 
> financial future. Frankly, I don't really understand their business 
> decision not to release RHEL distribution for free.  Those who need 
> support would buy support anyhow.  Those who don't need support can 
> choose some other just as good distribution anyhow.  Somebody who 
> started using some other distribution isn't going to buy support from 
> Red Hat.  Somebody who uses RHEL (clone), might decide to spend some 
> extra $$$ for support/training/whatever.
>
> I don't consider Red Hat's bugzilla system to be part of "paid 
> support".  If I find a bug when using CentOS, that the bug exists in 
> RHEL, and if I report it, fixing it will lead to better product for 
> Red Hat's paying customers too.  Happy customers = more referrals = 
> more profit.  Each time I stumble on non-trivial security related or 
> data corruption bugs (as the bug in NFS system I recently reported) 
> when using CentOS, I report it to Red Hat.  Usually I'll mention in 
> bug report that I stumbled on it when using CentOS (if I don't forget, 
> happens sometimes).  It is than on the Red Hat to decide if they are 
> going to do something about it, or wait till one of paying customers 
> is bitten by it.
>
> I haven't heard anybody being called a leach for downloading and 
> installing Solaris 10 (which is free for commercial use too, for those 
> of you who don't know it, and it is planned to go open source sometime 
> this year) on his/hers Intel box, and not paying for Sun support (or 
> buying Sun hardware).  If Sun who actually did all development work 
> themselves (and put way more money into making it) is not calling 
> people "leaches", I would be very dissapointed to hear it from Red 
> Hat  who "only" (OK, it isn't as simple as "only", making a 
> distribution is a big job on its own, but you get the point) packaged 
> something that other people spent countless man-hours to make.
>




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