On Thu, 16 Jan 2014, Brett Viren wrote: > --=-=-= > Content-Type: text/plain > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > > Yasha Karant <[log in to unmask]> writes: > >> How exactly does a for-profit corporation buy an endeavor such as >> CentOS?=20=20 > > By hiring the key, primary developers, I would imagine. > >> Could RH buy SL from Fermilab/CERN?=20=20 > > RH can try (and has succeeded once in the past) to hire SL developers > away. However, both labs have a wide and deep pool of technical ability > and I don't think RH could begin to exhaust that by this practice. The SL developer contacted RedHat. RH did not try to hire SL developers away. > > Personally (and please note the various conditional phrases), as long as > Debian exists and continues to follow its own constitution, all of these > corporate machination do not worry me. My feeling is that the only > thing that keeps RH derivatives going is historical inertia and, in only > a tiny fraction of the installations, adherence to RH conventions in > order to enable the use of proprietary software (aka evilness). If RH's > business decisions begin to levy significant costs on this community, > comparable to the (low) cost needed for the many talented SL admins to > upgrade their experience to Debian, then we will see a gradual draining > of the SL user base. This draining will be first seen in those users > who are not part of the primary SL target (which is particle/nuclear > physics) and so will largely leave SL unaffected at first. If the costs > increase further and become prohibitive to FNAL's strategy of respinning > RH sources then they will switch to Debian (or some popular corporate > derivative, because directly leveraging Debian would make too much > sense). If we ever do reach this description of reality, this sea > change will occur well after the break-even cost point has been passed > unless some charismatic, pro-Debian person takes a leadership role in SL > at FNAL and forces the issue early. > > If all this does come to pass, it will be a good thing, in my opinion. > At the very least it will teach a legion of people to laugh at the irony > of calling a RH respin "Scientific Linux" as they discover the relative > cornucopia of scientific software which exists in Debian and which is > lacking in SL. > > Okay, enough cloudy crystal ball gazing, carry on with the speculation. > > =2DBrett. > > > > > --=-=-= > Content-Type: application/pgp-signature > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) > > iEYEARECAAYFAlLX8t8ACgkQEixH2Z0dKCz7LACfVK3/PeqbZS+UM/BceQRbTmVk > PEgAniVN9YSspDmcl0nfmbxC3OlTm193 > =HUvY > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > --=-=-=-- > -Connie Sieh