[BlueOnyx:26357] Re: Redhat sources - current state of affairs

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Chris,

> It's fair to say that Red Hat's actions have been disruptive to nearly 
> all sectors of RHEL user base, but the impact to the hosting community 
> has been profound.  BlueOnyx is not the only control panel that was 
> caught flat-footed by RH's pronouncements and it may be years before the 
> ripples are fully settled.

Yeah, and we can be certain that causing these ripples was an 
intentional side effect.

> The commercial vendor we use for some hosting applications had been 
> working on their Ubuntu support for a while, but that has certainly 
 > been fast-tracked to a fully supported (and just short of recommended)
 > option. And they've been based on RHEL for as long as we have.

I can imagine. Having another OS (preferably a fully community driven 
one like Debian) as potential exit strategy is something we should have 
in the pipe. So I'm back at looking at a native BlueOnyx build for 
Debian as a long term alternative.

> While my company certainly has a hand in many different pots when it 
> comes to Linux flavors, our comfort zone has been with Enterprise Linux 
> from the start.

I think this is something we all can relate to. And while it's good that 
Enterprise Linux won't go away, the ripples in the water will persist 
for quite some time and this isn't helpful.

> I find it curious that CloudLinux themselves are offering a free 
 > distribution although they're funding AlmaLinux.

Indeed, that was a bit of a surprise. Their Cloud Linux had RHEL or 
CentOS 7/8/9 as upstream and tacked on some extras for the cloud related 
management. Plus they also offered architectural support for platforms 
that RedHat no longer offered. Like Arm64.

I guess the early CentOS 8 EOL left them with a gap to fill for their 
own needs. Creating AlmaLinux and spinning it off into a self-governing 
foundation was an interesting move. I also like the "added value" they 
provide, such as their ELEVATE OS upgrade script or the extra Arm64 builds.

> I can tell you one thing for certain:  Given the mercurial nature of 
> RedHat's decision making, we will not be considering their product. They 
> seem to shift directions on a whim, which is not a trait I'm interested 
> in when making decisions on how best to provide stability and success 
> for my business.   I cannot help but wonder if other managers might be 
> thinking along similar lines, and if RedHat's actions will ultimately 
> put then into an also-ran position.  Now that would really make things 
> interesting with the futures of AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CloudLinux etc.

The level of cooperation and collaboration we're currently seeing is 
great and hopefully it has the desired effect that RedHat realizes that 
further moving of goal-posts might not be in their own best interests. I 
heard nobody react to the current situation by saying: "Well, I guess 
then I buy some RedHat licenses instead!"

That ain't going to happen and all RedHat managed was to piss off a lot 
of the community on whose work they depend via Fedora, Epel, CentOS 
Stream. Or developers of those upstream projects which they themselves 
are leeching from. Like the combined works under the Apache Software 
Foundation's umbrella and others.

There is a lot of resilience in the open source community against 
corporate overlords and that can quickly turn into resistance. Which 
makes sense: It gives us dragons to slay and we don't even have to leave 
the basement for that. :p

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber