I'm Done with Red Hat (Enterprise Linux) (jeffgeerling.com)

Article summary

The author is discontinuing support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux due to the company's recent actions, including putting source code behind a paywall and attempting to restrict downstream distributions. Red Hat's decision is seen as a betrayal of the open source community, which had previously contributed to the company's success. The author will instead support alternative distributions, such as Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux. This move is a response to Red Hat's efforts to monetize its software and limit the use of its code by other distributions.

Main themes

• Red Hat's business model
• open source ethics
• GPL license compliance
• downstream distributions
• community reaction
• Linux ecosystem

What commenters say

• Red Hat's actions are a violation of the spirit of open source software and may be illegal under the GPL license.
• The company's decision to put source code behind a paywall is a reasonable business move, but may harm the community that relies on its software.
• Downstream distributions, such as Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux, are not simply 'ripping off' Red Hat's code, but are rather building on the open source foundation that Red Hat itself relies on.
• Red Hat's contributions to the Linux community are significant, and its actions may be necessary to ensure the company's continued survival and ability to contribute to the ecosystem.
• The open source ethos is not incompatible with for-profit business models, and Red Hat's actions may be a necessary step to ensure the company's continued success.
• Red Hat's attempts to restrict downstream distributions may ultimately harm the company itself, as it relies on the community's contributions and goodwill to maintain its position in the market.
• The GPL license requires that source code be made available to users of the software, and Red Hat's actions may be in violation of this requirement.
• The community's reaction to Red Hat's actions is not simply a matter of entitled users expecting free software, but rather a response to the company's perceived betrayal of the open source principles that it had previously championed.