[CentOS] Blog article about the state of CentOS

Wed Jun 17 17:58:10 UTC 2020
Stephen John Smoogen <smooge at gmail.com>

On Wed, 17 Jun 2020 at 13:11, Alessandro Baggi
<alessandro.baggi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Johnny,
> thank you for your and all centos team works.
>
> Many of us know how much work is needed for building new releases and
> maintaining C6 and C7, plus CentOS Stream and modules (Appstream). This is
> a huge work for a small team. Again thank you.
>
> For me OL is not an alternative.
>
> As reported in my previous message I'm not worried about how much time is
> required to build the new (major/minor) release, it will be ready when it
> will be. My major concern is about the "security update blackout" that take
> long as the build process.
>
> I would ask to you:
>
> 1. Why all security fix are stopped when a new release building process is
> started? There is a way or possibility to run the two process in parallel?
>

Most of the security fixes after the minor release are based off being
built with the code from that minor release. Sometimes the code may
even not compile without the rest of the packages involved. Deciding
which packages can and can not be affected by the minor release can be
a full time job.


> 2. When a build process is started and a security fix released there is a
> way for your team to "suspend" the building process, release security
> updates (for 6/7.x or 8.1) and resume the builing process? I think that
> many users (included me) will have less disappointment having security
> updates instead of receiving a  "signal lost" when building process takes
> its way.
>

It would require a second build system which built against the older
set of packages, it would also require someone to edit those packages
so they can be replaced by later released ones after the main release
is done. It also requires work on making sure conflicts and broken
packages are dealt with.

A lot of this is sausage making.. We all want the end product of a
cooked sausage.. but there is a lot of messy work which adding more
people to doesn't help unless you can add a lot of other things which
are supposed to appear ex-nihilo and fully formed.  You can have a lot
of people volunteer to stand around but there are only so many places
to push meat on one side, turn cranks in the middle and one tube which
the mess gets stuffed into.  Every extra thing requires months and
months of work and preparation to set up while still trying to make
the other items. However the only time people seem to get bothered
enough to even try to set up their own build system and find out how
much mess it is.. is after the current release is delayed.


> Thank you for your time.
>
> Alessandro.
>
> Il Mer 17 Giu 2020, 16:15 Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org> ha scritto:
>
> > 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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> >
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-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.