[BlueOnyx:24604] Re: End of life of Centos 8?

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Ken,

> Michael, what do you know about Oracle Linux?  I had never heard of it, but
> this blog post sounds very convincing:
> https://blogs.oracle.com/linux/need-a-stable%2c-rhel-compatible-alternative-
> to-centos-three-reasons-to-consider-oracle-linux
> 
> I assume this is in no way an outgrowth of Solaris.

Oracle Linux is basically a parallel project of CentOS. Oracle also
fetches the sources of RHEL, rebrands it and publishes it as Oracle
Linux. They do offer some extras for it that go beyond what CentOS does,
but for all intends and purposes anything compiled on RHEL8 or CentOS 8
will run on the latest Oracle Linux as well. You can easily turn a
CentOS 8 into an Oracle Linux by switching the repository files.

But like most I despise Oracle as they're scavengers and patent trolls.
So I'm neither advocating nor considering Oracle Linux as a replacement
for CentOS unless it's the last and only hope for continuity.

And that it is not.

> It also seems like IBM buying RedHat is reminiscent of what happened when
> Oracle bought Sun.  Again, maybe an uninformed opinion.

When RedHat bought CentOS outright this didn't really bode well. When
the suits at IBM bought RedHat it didn't take much premonition to deduct
that this wouldn't end well for our side of the turf. Eventually the
beancounters take stock at what they have and when you look at RHEL,
CentOS and Fedora and what they offer, then possession of CentOS as is
doesn't make any business sense.

Why? They offer for free what RedHat charges and arm and a leg for. Same
wine in different bottles. Which economically isn't really clever.
Taking that away or turning it into something else is the logical choice
that any beancounter would come to. Surely the "freeloaders" that really
depend on what CentOS offers would then pull out their wallets and buy
RedHat subscriptions, right?

Yeah? Really? Hell no.

I'll go a bit deeper than that in my next message to the list.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber