Redhat doesn't give back to open source?
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| Author | Content |
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| sbergman27 Dec 20, 2004 11:37 AM EDT |
> Even when Linux becomes THE accepted alternative for business and enterprise applications we should refrain from cheering companies such as Redhat and Novell because the money they earn doens't go back into open source...and the name they make for themselves...does nothing for open source. Wow. Redhat doesn't give back to open source. This kind of misinformation always disturbs me. Redhat has made open source the foundation of their entire business model. What successful business does not invest in its own foundations? Redhat gives *all* of its (rather substantial) development work back to the community. I know of no instance of the source code of any Redhat project being under a proprietary license. What's more, they go *beyond* the requirements of GPL. e.g. They are not required to make nice, tidy SRPMS available so that third parties like Whitebox can more easily create their own generic brands of RedHat Enterprise Linux. But they do anyway. Also, I do not believe that they are required to separate out all of their trademarked material into one tidy SRPM to make it easy for others to replace the trademarked material in said generic distros, but they do it anyway. Also, although they could bundle proprietary packages into their RHEL products, I do not believe that they do so. At one time (2.1), Sun's Java runtime was included. I'm not certain, but I do not believe that's true anymore. (I am not absolutely certain of the accuracy of this paragraph. Can someone confirm or deny, please?) There is entirely too much uninformed trash talk about Redhat floating around. |
| peragrin Dec 20, 2004 12:02 PM EDT |
>> There is entirely too much uninformed trash talk about Redhat floating around. |
| devnet Dec 20, 2004 12:32 PM EDT |
I'm speaking of open source as a whole not just Linux. Perhaps they give a framework, model, and some nice packages...but I doubt much if they are now putting a certain percentage of their earnings back into the community or donating fundage to open source projects. And that was my point on this...that companies will distance themselves in the pursuit of the almighty dollar and that it is impossible for them to do otherwise...it's not their fault, they need to make money and this is how they do it. The bad part about it is that if too many places or people take and take and take...and it has changed so much from say...1996 when it was all about giving. Things will change with the onslaught of enterprise Linux...and that is also the main point as well. devnet |
| sbergman27 Dec 20, 2004 1:36 PM EDT |
Didn't they create a legal fund for defense of open source projects and contribute $1 million to it as seed money? Didn't they fund ext3? Don't they allocate many of their best programmers, not to mention hardware and bandwidth resouces, to the Fedora project on an ongoing basis? Didn't they buy and open source GFS? Didn't they develop JFFS2? Don't they regularly contribute (much more than a little) employee time to the Linux kernel? Don't they develop Cygwin? This is all just off the top of my head. I'm sure I'm missing plenty more examples. Contributing to the quality, variety, legal welfare, and popularity of open source in general is *fundamental* to their success as a company and they know it well. Redhat has been in the enterprise Linux market for a while now, and their policies have not waivered. So I don't see any evidence supporting your last point. Things *could* change in the future. But I see absolutely no evidence of it now. (Hey, even Debian *could* turn evil. Don't hold your breath, though.) I simply don't see a problem here. |
| peragrin Dec 20, 2004 2:27 PM EDT |
Question. Does Red hat allows it's developers to work on Open source projects on company time? Does Red Hat not only release that code back, but take other packages and help those developers to make their own prodcut better? You can't as a business just give away your profits. You need funding for when time is bleak. You need funds to stay alive. Look at Novell. Do you really think if they gave away all of their netware tech back in the mid 90's they would of had enough capital to buy Suse? Red Hat , Suse Hire developers, to work on their projects, but also to work on other people's projects to make sure they can be intergrated easily. Who does the beta testing? It's not just the code being released, but how your company is working with others to make a better product. sun contributes the most code in lines, but less in developers times now a days. When(if) Solaris goes open that should change. |
| cjcox Dec 20, 2004 3:02 PM EDT |
> Does Red hat allows it's developers to work on Open source projects on company time? Yes... duh... > Does Red Hat not only release that code back, but take other packages and help those developers to make their own prodcut better? Yes... duh... > Do you really think if they gave away all of their netware tech back in the mid 90's they would of had enough capital to buy Suse? The capital to buy SUSE was provided to them by IBM. > Sun contributes the most code in lines That is not even close to being true. > but less in developers times now a days. When(if) Solaris goes open that should change. I don't think so... but the whole concept doesn't even make sense. |
| r_a_trip Dec 20, 2004 3:02 PM EDT |
Redhat as a Distro (including Fedora) doesn't jive with my personal needs. Apart from that, Redhat has always been a very nice, true and formidable Open Source partner. Don't bash Redhat for making a buck with Open Source. They contribute shitloads of quality code back into the community. If you need to bash the rotten apples within FOSS, just look at The SCO Group. There you have this totally evil entity, that went from dishonest GNU/Linux distributor to public FOSS enemy #1. Companies are here to make a profit, that is the way these bodies work. Redhat is an excellent partner by being 99.9% FOSS. IBM and Novell do contribute less, but still they contribute. I'm a bit skeptical about Sun, but nevertheless acknowledge their contributions. Let's not bite the hands that feed us (partially). There are graver dangers out there. |
| sbergman27 Dec 20, 2004 4:40 PM EDT |
> If you need to bash the rotten apples within FOSS, just look at The SCO Group. There you have this totally evil entity, that went from dishonest GNU/Linux distributor to public FOSS enemy #1. Just to be fair to what I term as "Old Caldera" which was always a bit tenuously perched as a true OSS company, but on the whole, was pretty honest and up-front about the fact, I should say that the current SCO Group is an entirely different animal. The old management was ejected, and the new, lying, scheming (and now, losing :-) set of SOBs that are currently at the helm came later. Live Long, and Prosper, Steve Bergman |
| Koriel Dec 21, 2004 7:24 AM EDT |
All this Redhat bashing i think stems from SUN's fud, Maybe Redhat aren't the "giving" company they used to be maybe they are, i dont know but i do know that in the past they have put a lot in to supporting OSS, far more than most i believe! Disclaimer: I am not a Redhat/Fedora fan boy, Slackware is my drug of choice, i just believe in credit where it is due. |
| cjcox Dec 21, 2004 10:39 AM EDT |
And the facts are that Red Hat is a contributor of FOSS and an advocate of GPL in particular. My differences with Red Hat are usually with regards to how they chose to implement something. Shoot... if tomorrow you told me that my ONLY choice was Red Hat, well... all I can say is that it's better than the alternative! |
| AnonymousCoward Dec 21, 2004 4:18 PM EDT |
As I said to the author, I'm delighted that Red Hat can make a buck out of it. Even if they didn't kick back in - and they do, with much less ambiguity of motive and position than Sun (but, hey, when all's said and done Sun do contribute). The more the merrier. The only time I have a problem is when somebody tries to stop other people from making a buck out of it, or not, as their tastes lie. |
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