[CentOS] Blog article about the state of CentOS

Wed Jun 17 14:15:35 UTC 2020
Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org>

On 6/17/20 8:06 AM, Simon Matter via CentOS wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just read this blog article from austrian Linux expert Michael Kofler.
>> For
>> those among you who don't know the guy, he's my home country's number one
>> Linux
>> expert (known as "der Kofler") and most notably the author of a series of
>> excellent books about Linux over the last 25 years.
>>
>> https://kofler.info/centos-8-wertlose-langzeitunterstuetzung/
>>
>> Disclaimer : I've been a CentOS user (and fan) since 4.x, I'm using it on
>> all
>> my servers, and yes, I know the difference between upstream RHEL and
>> CentOS.
>>
>> The article is in german, but the statistics graph is eloquent enough for
>> the
>> non-german-speaking users. It focuses on updates for CentOS 8, and more
>> exactly
>> the extended periods of time where there have been no updates available.
>>
>> The author's theory ("unspoken truth"): while it's a positive thing that
>> Red
>> Hat is sponsoring CentOS, the amount of sponsoring is just insufficient
>> enough
>> so that the product is "starved to death" by Red Hat (e. g. IBM) to
>> encourage
>> users to move to RHEL.
> 
> I think if Red Hat really wanted to improve the situation, they could
> integrate the building of CentOS into the EL build system to produce both
> versions, RHEL and CentOS, at the same time. In the end 99% of the bits
> are the same anyway. If the delay of CentOS builds is really wanted by Red
> Hat, it would be nice of them to speak it out - and change the name to
> COS, because the ent is not true anymore :-)
> 
> Up to now I thought the big delay with 8 is more an accident than wanted.
> Would be nice to hear what Red Hat says about it. Maybe the problem is not
> known well enough in the Red Hat universe.
>


No one is trynig to make anything slower.

And CentOS Stream 'is' going to be how RHEL is developed in the future.
 So, all this is happening.

But modules introduced in RHEL 8 requires a who new build system (as
koji set up) and a whole new module build back end (MBS).

If you would rather use Oracle for your open source needs .. well, that
is a decision you can make and be responsible for.

If you would instead have feedback directly into the RHEL development
process as a community .. then CentOS is where you want to be.

This stuff is open source, and you are all gown ups who can make your
own decisions.

I can assure you .. I am working my butt off everyday to make CentOS
Linux the best it can be.  If you want to compare what the CentOS team
(a small team) can do compared to Oracle (a tmulti billin dollar
corporation who bought Sun Microsystems .. took over Java and Open
Office, etc)  .. well, we can not provide the resources they can provide.

But Red hat heard the community .. that the community and Red Hat
customers want more direct input into RHEL development.  And Red Hat is
taking action to open up RHEL development in CentOS Stream.

You get to decide who you trust.

Thanks,
Johnny hUghes



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