On 06/27/2014 05:26 PM, Mark Rousell wrote:
> The cessation of SRPM distribution in general to non-customers, which 
> is the specific issue at hand here, is a new issue that has new 
> considerations to take into account. Whilst it has similarities to the 
> kernel issue in 2011 it also goes further. 

The SRPM issue is not a new one, either.  Try to find the EUS sources, 
for instance.  Or, to go to another, different, distribution, let's find 
the SuSE Enterprise Linux Server SRPMS, the updates of which have been 
only available to subscribers for, to the best of my knowledge, at least 
ten years. You certainly won't find SRPMS in a quick skim of 
ftp.suse.com.  (The latest SLES download is SLES 11 SP3, from July of 
2013, nearly a year ago.  I know that there are security updates since 
then, but where are they for non-subscribers?  Where is the source for 
the updates for non-subscribers?  I'd love to find it so I could add 
another supportable OS for my SGI Altix IA64 boxen).

This is not a new issue.  See Dag's take on it from 2007 at 
http://dag.wiee.rs/blog/why-is-there-no-open-source-sles