Quoting vmlinux (vmlinux@???):

> Embrace, Extend, Extinguish? Shocking but not surprising. Even more reason for Devuan to exist.
>
> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/centos-shifts-from-red-hat-unbranded-to-red-hat-beta/




From: Rick Moen via Sb <sb@???>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2020 23:41:46 -0800
To: Birmingham Linux User Group <sb@???>
Subject: Re: [SB] Strategic CentOS

Quoting Brian C via Sb (sb@???):

> CentOS Stream made no technical sense to me when I first read about
> it, and it still doesn't. People use CentOS because they want
> stability.

Concur.

> So the recent strategic move I see as effectively killing the CentOS
> project, but keeping the name alive to attempt to minimise adverse
> reactions.
>
> And I assume that someone is gambling on a large number of CentOS
> users finding it less expensive to switch to RHEL than to something
> else.
>
> Hopefully information will leak about who's been pushing for the
> change and when they started.

All the signs I'm seeing make me think this is a high-level decision
already fully underway and highly unlikely to ever be reversed. I share
your surmise about RH Corporate's aim. Still, the suddenly
prospect-less CentOS user community can reasonably be grateful for Red
Hat, Inc.'s sponsorship of the project for many years until now.

Long ago (early 2000s), independent RHEL-rebuild projects sprang up and
thrived when a number of people, starting with John Morris (White Box
Enterprise Linux) realised that an unbranded RHEL-equivalent was
feasible. Morris's work was followed by Tao Linux, Scientific Linux,
cAos Linux, NPACI Rocks Cluster Distribution, BioBrew Linux, X/OS Linux,
Pie Box Enterprise Linux, and others.

I'm not clear on what new obstacles there might now be, e.g., on account
of RH, Inc. wishing to make things difficult for Oracle Linux. In olden
days, the main task required was to swap in different contents for the
two trademark-encumbered non-software SRPMs, the ones named redhat-logos
and anaconda-images, and some other work to make the result self-hosting
and compile everything to create a binary distro.

At the time, there was a mailing list named rhel-rebuild, where the
pioneers of the above-cited projects and others hung out. Its
information page still exists:
https://www.uibk.ac.at/zid/systeme/linux/linux-alt/rhel-rebuild-l.html

I'm betting the actual mailing list (hosted for a while on Sympa)
is long gone. (Untested, though.)

-- 
Cheers,                           "2020 is pulling out more plot devices than 
Rick Moen                         a TV series on the brink of being canceled."
rick@???                          (Seen on Reddit, Oct. 2, 2020.)
McQ! (4x80)