MESSAGE
| DATE | 2015-06-05 |
| FROM | Rick Moen
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| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] making money with open source - John Walker
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Quoting Ruben (mrbrklyn-at-panix.com):
> that is interesting, I didn't even know you could download that any
> longer.
You've always been able to download the full matching source code of
RHEL under open source / free software licensint terms. By the way, I
consulted my notes (part of which are at
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/RedHat/rhel-forks.html), and the two SRPMs of
trademark-encumbered image files are named 'redhat-logos' and
'anaconda-images'.
The licence terms for those image files provide for gratis usage but
require satisfying Red Hat's trademark policy. To avoid needing to
agree to those terms, one compiles the distro usign different image
files, thus producing somthing like CentOS, X/OS Linux, Scientific
Linux, StartCom Linux, and Rocks. (Some years ago, that list of RHEL
rebuild included Tao Linux, Eadem Enterprise AS, cAos Linux, and White
Box Linux, but those have folded. Technically, cAos Linux ceased being
maintaned because I introduced its maintainer to the CentOS people and
suggested they combine efforts.)
> Is that as upto date as Fedora?
Fedora is the leading-edge labaratory for RHEL, so no. And you're
better off, generally speaking. Sane people don't try to rely on Fedora
in production.
> These guys don't even want to support desktop usage, which IMO is a
> HUGE error [...]
Any competitors who see a market opportunity are welcome to charge right
in. You think you're smarter than the market, it could be you grabbing
those billions of dollars.
> Look, they are not selling that. They packaging it in a support
> contract.
Functionally equivalent to selling it. You stated, in error, that 'Red
Hat, and SuSE pulled their consumer grade COTS software off the market.'
I merely pointed out your factual error, telling you that RHEL is (last
I heard) 100% open source / free software, is freely available as open
source / free software SRPMs, and is available as consumer-grade
commercial off-the-shelf software.
You forgot to say 'Thank you.' I'll pretend you did. You're welcome,
Ruben. Always glad to share useful information.
> On their front webpage they say that they are offering services and
> support. They don't even say that they sell software.
And yet they do. It's just bundled with services and support. Or, if
you don't want services and support, you can grab the SRPMs and build
one, or rely on the five or more REHL rebuild distributions (CentOS,
etc.) that construct a binary from pristine RHEL sources for you. Or,
technically, you could ask a friend who purchase the support-wrapped
RHEL binary software to image you an ISO. Near as I can tell (from
years ago, when I last studied this in detail, doing this in a
non-commercial context is perfectly lawful. Commercial redistribution
could run into trademark infractions, depending on details. However,
persoanly, I find RHEL a pain in the neck and prefer CentOS or
Scientific Linux to it anyway.
Meanwhile, I'm a charming hilltop hotel overlooking Rome (the Rome
Cavalieri), so please excuse me while I go off to have a delightful
breakfast and enjoy the city.
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