On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 04:43:34PM -0500, Mark J Bailey (JobsoftInc) wrote: > http://nerdvittles.com/?p=8721
Old news.
> Ward Mundy at Nerd Vittles has always been level headed (IMHO) and thorough.
I've never read anything else by him that I can recall but this specific
article is chock-full of FUD.
> and is now putting some new restrictions on the use of CentOS as the basis
> for a custom distribution (product or project - like Scientific Linux or
> Elastix) unless it is an "official" CentOS packaging/distribution. Not sure
There are no restrictions on the use of CentOS other than the same
restrictions that apply to any other US corporation as far as export
laws go. The restrictions are on the mis-use of the various project
marks which the project has been unable to enforce for various reasons
throughout the years.
> if they will provide a way for one to be "certified" by Red Hat or not, but
> either way, this is going to rain on quite a few parades. End users can
> still install CentOS and then load other stuff, but the days of the open and
> free use of CentOS as the basis for a rolled up specialized distro are now
> over.
This is absolutely false. You are not permitted to use the CentOS brand or
marks in such a project any longer unless it's been authorized by the
CentOS Board. Technically these projects have been infringing on marks
in one way or another all along for the most part anyway so good
riddance. You are still free to go through the same debranding process
to remove any infringing material (most notably the artwork) as CentOS
itself has to go through when respining upstream packages and then you
can ship anything you want, sans mark infringement.
> To think Red Hat actually appreciated all that revenue being lost to CentOS
> over the past decade was just that. wishful thinking. Obviously, as Ward
> points out, this is going to take a while to legally settle out, and could
> really muddy the waters.
If you can provide _tangible_ numbers with regards to "lost revenue" I
would dearly love to see them. I've been hearing this same line for the
past decade and as of yet there has been no justification for such
claims. Some RHAT sales pukes were pissy about lost commissions - boo
hoo. Red Hat _management_ have been on record for years saying that CentOS
is a valuable asset and not a revenue sink.
I am unsure as to what anyone thinks needs to be legally settled in
this. It's a done deal.
> Wow! Who didn't see this coming?!
Me :( And I've been involved with the project in one way or another or
nearly the entire past decade. No one saw this coming. This was
straight out of left field.
John
--
We're not ending the journey today, we're completing a chapter of a journey
that will never end. Let's light this shuttle one more time ... and
witness this nation at its best. The crew of Atlantis is ready to launch.
-- Atlantis Commander Chris Ferguson, just before the 11:29:29am EDT
launch of STS-135, the final Space Shuttle mission, 8 July 2011
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