Carl George

There's programs for giving educational institutions free or heavily discounted RHEL. There's tons of ways to get RHEL without paying for it. But there are definitely scenarios where Red Hat once thinks that, yes, this person should pay for RHEL. And a lot of those people are the ones that they use CentOS rather than just, I want an operating system.

There's programs for giving educational institutions free or heavily discounted RHEL. There's tons of ways to get RHEL without paying for it. But there are definitely scenarios where Red Hat once thinks that, yes, this person should pay for RHEL. And a lot of those people are the ones that they use CentOS rather than just, I want an operating system.

They wanted just to get RHEL without paying for it or get a discount on their RHEL. They'd use, you know, 10% of their fleet on RHEL and then the rest on CentOS to cut cost. That was never a good fit for it because of small, subtle differences in the engineering and how it's built. One of those is that Red Hat Enterprise Linux actually has overlapping minor versions.

They wanted just to get RHEL without paying for it or get a discount on their RHEL. They'd use, you know, 10% of their fleet on RHEL and then the rest on CentOS to cut cost. That was never a good fit for it because of small, subtle differences in the engineering and how it's built. One of those is that Red Hat Enterprise Linux actually has overlapping minor versions.

You can stay on, say, 9.0 after 9.1 and 9.2 come out, still get security updates, and some third parties only certify on specific minor versions. So if you've got third-party vendor software that hard requires 9.2 using anything that's on, you know, like...

You can stay on, say, 9.0 after 9.1 and 9.2 come out, still get security updates, and some third parties only certify on specific minor versions. So if you've got third-party vendor software that hard requires 9.2 using anything that's on, you know, like...

one of the other rebuilds that's on 9.4 on Centro Extreme that basically has 9.6 content right now, it's a little bit ahead on minor versions, then if a vendor requires 9.0 strictly, then it might not work. But Red Hat will sell you 9.0 still with security updates. 9.2 might be a better example, because it doesn't last forever, you can't stay there forever, it's just an extension.

one of the other rebuilds that's on 9.4 on Centro Extreme that basically has 9.6 content right now, it's a little bit ahead on minor versions, then if a vendor requires 9.0 strictly, then it might not work. But Red Hat will sell you 9.0 still with security updates. 9.2 might be a better example, because it doesn't last forever, you can't stay there forever, it's just an extension.

But those overlapping things are things that community projects have never had. CentOS never had them. And the new RHEL rebuilds that are trying to claim that they're the new CentOS, they don't have them either. They also have corporate sponsors that sell those extensions. They're trying to make their buck too, which is understandable. We're all trying to make money in open source.

But those overlapping things are things that community projects have never had. CentOS never had them. And the new RHEL rebuilds that are trying to claim that they're the new CentOS, they don't have them either. They also have corporate sponsors that sell those extensions. They're trying to make their buck too, which is understandable. We're all trying to make money in open source.

The big value prop that I talked about with Red Hat with the ecosystem stuff is that, not that you'll just go use this and it's a cheaper price than RHEL, it's that you can go to the people creating this software. A lot of times they're maintaining it in RHEL, they're maintaining it in CentOS, and often times they're maintaining it in Fedora too.

The big value prop that I talked about with Red Hat with the ecosystem stuff is that, not that you'll just go use this and it's a cheaper price than RHEL, it's that you can go to the people creating this software. A lot of times they're maintaining it in RHEL, they're maintaining it in CentOS, and often times they're maintaining it in Fedora too.

Not always, but there's a huge, huge participation from Red Hat in Fedora all the way. It is separate from Red Hat, but we're very involved at every step of the process. So if you can make a feature request and say, I wish this software did this thing, Red Hat can say, all right, that's a good idea. Here's how we'd go about it.

Not always, but there's a huge, huge participation from Red Hat in Fedora all the way. It is separate from Red Hat, but we're very involved at every step of the process. So if you can make a feature request and say, I wish this software did this thing, Red Hat can say, all right, that's a good idea. Here's how we'd go about it.

First, we're going to put it in the upstream project where we're also participating. Then we'll build it in Fedora. And then it'll go into either the next minor version of RHEL or the next major version of RHEL, depending on how disruptive the change is. And then they put it in CentOS Stream Next. And then it goes into RHEL after that.

First, we're going to put it in the upstream project where we're also participating. Then we'll build it in Fedora. And then it'll go into either the next minor version of RHEL or the next major version of RHEL, depending on how disruptive the change is. And then they put it in CentOS Stream Next. And then it goes into RHEL after that.

So having people that are holistic across the entire pipeline, that's the expertise thing. From the engineering angle, that's the real value I see looking at it with a set of engineering eyes.

So having people that are holistic across the entire pipeline, that's the expertise thing. From the engineering angle, that's the real value I see looking at it with a set of engineering eyes.

Sure.

Sure.