[CentOS] The future of centos

[James B. Byrne]

On Fri, April 3, 2015 22:54, Always Learning wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2015-04-03 at 22:47 -0400, Digimer wrote:
>
>> No, people are speculating about the future of CentOS.
>
> . . .
> The future is certain. To benefit from this free operating system,
> tolerate the RH control and desire to ensure Centos and RHEL are not
> exactly the same (including incompatible version numbers) or get
> another operating system. It is that simple.
>
> Happy Easter to everyone.
>
> . . .

There remain ClearOS and Scientific Linux. But, I am in no hurry to
make any decision at the present time.  I am not at all on-board with
the "evil empire" takeover interpretation of recent events.  I do not
believe this to be the case.

However, the golden rule holds that whoever pays the gold makes the
rules.  I do not think this situation will prove any different in the
long run.  When a "volunteer" board becomes dominated by a single
commercial entity who pays employees to "volunteer" the long-term
results are decisions that tend to favour that entity over all
members. I have seen this happen first hand and our firm no long
belongs to that particular national organisation in consequence.

This is an interesting situation from a philosophical POV though. What
are the ethics of attempting to monetize the intellectual property of
others?  What are the ethics of attempting to make use of the benefits
that arise from that monetizing effort without paying for them?


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