Carl George

You mentioned about how it works differently now. I want to go into that a little more if I can. What do you mean by that? CentOS and working differently, right?

You mentioned about how it works differently now. I want to go into that a little more if I can. What do you mean by that? CentOS and working differently, right?

The IBM acquisition stuff is kind of tangential, right?

The IBM acquisition stuff is kind of tangential, right?

So CentOS started outside of Red Hat. And then I think it started around 2004. About 10 years later, the project was kind of on the ropes. Maintainers were burned out. They had day jobs. No one was getting paid to work on it. And what Red Hat saw was that... And it's kind of weird. It's a bit of an incompetence thing.

So CentOS started outside of Red Hat. And then I think it started around 2004. About 10 years later, the project was kind of on the ropes. Maintainers were burned out. They had day jobs. No one was getting paid to work on it. And what Red Hat saw was that... And it's kind of weird. It's a bit of an incompetence thing.

We had inside Red Hat development teams using CentOS to build with because we couldn't get out of our own way and give our own teams free RHEL. It's super messy, and it's gotten better since then. But at the time, that was kind of the state of things. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Maybe I should talk about that. But I think it's hilarious.

We had inside Red Hat development teams using CentOS to build with because we couldn't get out of our own way and give our own teams free RHEL. It's super messy, and it's gotten better since then. But at the time, that was kind of the state of things. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Maybe I should talk about that. But I think it's hilarious.

I'm just kidding. Nobody's told me I can't say that.

I'm just kidding. Nobody's told me I can't say that.

uh but that kind of drove it they basically red hat was like we want this this project to keep existing and so we're gonna you know they made job offers to all of the developers most of them took it a few of them turned it down and then um they basically came into red hat partially they were still kind of kept off to the side they're like well you're still kind of duplicating this product but we want you to keep going and and uh exist and so they kind of sat in that limbo for a while where they weren't growing they weren't getting

uh but that kind of drove it they basically red hat was like we want this this project to keep existing and so we're gonna you know they made job offers to all of the developers most of them took it a few of them turned it down and then um they basically came into red hat partially they were still kind of kept off to the side they're like well you're still kind of duplicating this product but we want you to keep going and and uh exist and so they kind of sat in that limbo for a while where they weren't growing they weren't getting

They weren't getting people resources, but they had the resources they need to focus their full time on it, get a paycheck, and keep the project going. That was a little bit of an infusion, but we still had this problem around this whole bug for bug thing and also being a duplicate of the product.

They weren't getting people resources, but they had the resources they need to focus their full time on it, get a paycheck, and keep the project going. That was a little bit of an infusion, but we still had this problem around this whole bug for bug thing and also being a duplicate of the product.

There would never be a business incentive to put the same engineering resources into your product and this project that is trying to match it as close as possible. That would never make sense. No business person would agree to that. but because of all the nuance around how it was being used as a development platform.

There would never be a business incentive to put the same engineering resources into your product and this project that is trying to match it as close as possible. That would never make sense. No business person would agree to that. but because of all the nuance around how it was being used as a development platform.

But we also saw the pain points of it being a development platform that lagged behind the thing it was trying to match, right? CentOS would typically lag about a month behind on the minor versions, like RHEL 7.6 would come out, and then CentOS 7.6 would be, it'd be 7.5 for a while, they'd finish the rebuild and publish it, and about a month later you'd get it.

But we also saw the pain points of it being a development platform that lagged behind the thing it was trying to match, right? CentOS would typically lag about a month behind on the minor versions, like RHEL 7.6 would come out, and then CentOS 7.6 would be, it'd be 7.5 for a while, they'd finish the rebuild and publish it, and about a month later you'd get it.

So those rebuild gaps were real painful for the developers trying to use it as a platform to build on.

So those rebuild gaps were real painful for the developers trying to use it as a platform to build on.