On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 08:17:19PM +0100, Mark Rousell wrote:
> 
> However, based upon the balance of probabilities, it looks likely that
> SL7 will not be based directly on RHEL7 but on CentOS.
> If so, ... why continued with SL at all.
>

The 800lbs gorilla in the room is CERN (and other large physics labs),
who require a linux (some linux) to run the large compute farms
for analysis of LHC data.

For historical reasons, this linux has been Red Hat based
(and we know it under the names "SL" and "SLC").

Will it remain Red Hat based?
Will the next cern linux be ubuntu/debian based?
Will Red Hat relax their rules to keep CERN (and the HEP community)?

As an added kink, with the major changes from RHEL6 to RHEL7,
the cost of going from SLC6 to RHEL based SLC7 becomes comparable
to going from SLC6 to a ubuntu/debian based SLC?

Whatever the case, there will continue to exist a linux of production quality
and of free or affordable cost.

-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada