On Wed, 8 Jan 2014, Connie Sieh wrote:

> We are in the process of researching/evaluating this news and how it
> impacts Scientific Linux.
>
> -Connie Sieh
>

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Update on Scientific Linux

On January 7, Red Hat and CentOS announced that they joined forces 
(http://www.centos.org). Since Scientific Linux relies on Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux source code, this is of great interest to the 
Scientific Linux project. We have been learning more about their plans 
and considering the possibilities for Scientific Linux. We've had 
conversations with CentOS and Red Hat, and between Fermilab and CERN. We 
plan further discussions with these groups and also with other 
contributors to and users of Scientific Linux. No final decisions have 
been made, but we can provide an update on our thoughts so far.

Fermilab and CERN remain committed to the original goal of Scientific 
Linux: providing a stable, well-supported, open-source platform which 
meets the needs of high-energy physics experiments. The fact that this 
platform is used by people outside of that community is something we 
appreciate and will be a factor in any decisions going forward.

There are still many questions to pursue as the details of CentOS 
Special Interest Groups continue to evolve. The anticipated release of 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 presents an opportunity to consider 
forming/joining a CentOS Special Interest Group 
(http://www.centos.org/about/governance/sigs/) and producing Scientific 
Linux 7 as a CentOS variant (http://www.centos.org/variants/). The 
variant structure may allow greater flexibility in adapting the 
distribution to scientific needs. The framework and relationship 
structure of CentOS Special Interest Groups is still under heavy 
discussion on the CentOS development list. This is only being evaluated 
for Scientific Linux version 7.

Security and other updates for the current Scientific Linux versions 5 
and 6 will continue uninterrupted. We expect the process for SL 5 and 6 
support to remain essentially the same, with the only substantive change 
being that source code will come from centos.org rather than redhat.com. 
We expect this change to be transparent to all users.

There will be many more details to fill in, and we'll try to keep 
everyone in the Scientific Linux community informed as we continue to 
explore the options the Red Hat / CentOS partnership presents.


-Connie Sieh