Red Hat’s commitment to open source: A response to the git.centos.org changes
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More about Red Hat's decision to make CentOS Stream the primary repository for RHEL sources.
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That's a very emotional take indeed, you obviously feel strongly.
What, exactly, is RedHat stealing here? Are they deleting code from upstream git repos?
I mean, if you have a moral issue with the way RedHat chooses to structure their customer agreements, you're more than welcome to not use their products. I generally feel like this is a mistake on RedHats part myself, but it doesn't affect my life in any meaningful way.
RedHat is going to continue to contribute back upstream, they're going to continue to support Fedora, and provide CentOS Stream for to community to use.
Rocky, Alma, Oracle and other projects that were rebuilding RHEL sources will have to sort out how they want to proceed.
There are a hell of a lot more evil things happening in the world to get pissed off about.
If you don't abide by the terms of the GPL, you do not have permission to modify and redistribute code licensed under it. That means that their entire OS is stolen, and they are selling software they have zero rights to.
Allowing companies to get away with it fundamentally destroys the principles of open source code. Sharing literally every modification they distribute with literally zero restrictions that aren't part of the GPL isn't some nice to have. It's unconditionally mandatory to have any rights to touch the code at all.
That's how you read the GPL, you might be right.
When I read the GPL, and I have read it a number of times over the years, while I might find what RedHat has chosen to do to be distasteful, I don't find it in violation of the GPL. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong.
But I'm not a legal expert by any stretch of the imagination, are you?