I saw the announcement today that CentOS has 'joined forces' with Redhat. See http://www.centos.org/ (The CentOS wheels now get a paycheck from Redhat)

Where should a long time CentOS user go?

Scientific Linux?
Ubuntu?

wow did you even bother reading the FAQ about this merger? they will stay right were they are. if you enjoyed CentOS before you will enjoy it even better now.

After reading the details of the announcement I installed my first CetOS disto. For learning! This is a great development!

yes, this is going to be a GREAT thing for CentOS, just like it has been for spacewalk.

First I should point out that I'm talking about RHEL. Years ago I had
a Redhat license. I didn't mind paying a couple hundred bucks a year for
their service. But eventually I went to two and four way computers in my micro
company. I was going to have to pay over $1500 a year to get Linux
for multi-CPU machines. Ouch. Then someone pointed out CentOS. So CentOS
has saved me many thousands over the years. I'm very sad to see
it go away.

But.
Seriously, you believe the hype, that things will get better?
Yeah that's what happens in corporate america all the time.
Which sounds more likely; that the company who was charging for
their software, will buy the company that is giving it away for free,
so that they can also give it away for free. Or could it be that
Redhat bought Centos so they could stop that avenue of free distribution?
Stop the bleeding, so to speak.
Redhat bought CentOS simply to stop CentOS from
giving away Redhat's products. It's economics 101. Remove the competition
and you can charge more. Our airline industry is a perfect example of this.
American didn't buy US Airways so they could "Move forward with you in mind"
(that's their real catch phrase). They did it to remove competition, so that they
can charge more.

I read most of the announcement. All the wheels at CentOS are now
drawing a paycheck from Redhat. Their mission WAS to make the software
available to all. NOW their mission is to keep that paycheck coming in,
how do you think they'll do that? That's right Centos will disappear
over the horizon. Redhat now has many more mouths to feed, where's that
revenue going to come from? (BTW I don't blame them one bit, for selling out.
A steady paycheck must look pretty good to them after all these years of
doing such a thankless job.)
Start saving your pennies boys, it's a matter of time before Centos websites
disappear. A short matter of time.
Here's the likely scenario. We'll never see a CentOS 7.x It won't exist.
The only avenue of moving forward with an enterprise version of RHEL 7.x will be
to buy it from Redhat. Then pieces of the CentOS web world will disappear.
Bit by Bit. (That's a joke son, I say, that's a joke - red in a Foghorn Leghorn
accent) In 5 years no one will even remember CentOS. On the plus side, many
CentOS users will migrate to another free version of Linux. My original question
was a plea for the soothsayers, the prescient, the fortune tellers among us to let
us in on which Linux flavor will rise, as CentOS falls. I'd hate to move to
(say) Ubuntu, while everyone else moves to Scientific Linux.

For myself, I'm going to stop using yum to install packages, instead I'll download
and save, then install RPMs. That'll give me a copy. And I'll probably build
all of my new workstations with SL.

2 members found this post helpful.

Keep wiggling those toes, my friend.

wow wiggles, you are bent and twisted. if what you say will come true, explain to me why and how spacewalk is still 100% free even after RH took over full control roughly 2 years ago.

that in and of its self and the fact that Fedora is still 100% free as in beer is a very good indicator that CentOS will remain free and when RHEL 7 goes live, you will see CentOS 7 within 2weeks as is typical of any release for CentOS.

Centos also pulls in a lot of clients to RHEL in the long run.
They're just enabling it to also handle the layered products as well.

OEL is the commercial competition, hence the change in the way they issue the update code, but as an 'insider', Centos will be protected from that issue.

I reckon that they won't go anywhere. In fact, I suspect that now they are much less likely to go "anywhere [else]" than they might have been previously.

Look ... for as much as we like to talk about "free as in 'free beer'," have you ever actually been able to get beer for free? Uhh... the answer to that particular question would be, "No." Beer, like every other product in this world, costs money.

. . . and, by the by, so do we! Every single one of us. We don't go to work each day except that we know that, every two weeks or so, we'll come home with a paycheck. It's the way of the world.

And (heh, heh, heh ...) that is why, on that memorable day when RHAT had its IPO ... "I wa$$$ there."

What are "all those CentOS users, really?" Yeah... they're stakeholders. One way or another, they need CentOS "to be there for them." Uh huh, well, that takes money. The salaries must be paid.

A partnership with Red Hat will provide, perhaps for the first time in a very long time, a credible assurance of that.

... and Red Hat doesn't "have to pulverize CentOS to crush the competition," because, in fact, their respective business models largely occupy parallel paths. None of Red Hat's customers are going to "jump ship," because Red Hat's ship offers "life jackets and amenities and a captain's reception at 9pm" in exchange for their nominal subscription-payment. None of CentOS's customers are going to "jump ship" because they know precisely how to steer a kayak. Both parties are happy. There is no conflict.

To put it diplomatically, your speculation is unfounded. Redhat's real product is paid support. Which CentOS in no way competes with.

1 members found this post helpful.

Corporate customers LOVE paid-for support, they love SLAs and all that kind of thing.
IT departments LOVE paid-for support, "I escalated that problem to [VENDOR] and am awaiting their reply."

CentOS now be seen as an "extended trial" of RedHat and a good way to leverage an "enterprise" O/S into companies along the lines of "Well we can start with CentOS and when we're happy it'll work for us we can move to RH for paid support".

As long as RH continue to release their source code then someone else can compile it and release it the same way the current CentOS project does.

Now RedHat need to sort out a deal with remi for PHP

Wigglytoes is one of, if not the only, realistic poster in this thread.
It is a constant amazement to me how little history people remember, if they read their history at all.
Anyone remember The Glass-Steagall Act? Back in the '90s the bandits on wall street bought the best politicians they could afford and managed to get it repealed. Bent billy clinton signed off on it and said Glass-Steagall (The Banking Act of 1933) was no longer needed.
You know what happened.
How about mickeysoft and corel? google and adobe?
"When all else fails, follow the money."

1 members found this post helpful.

LOL!

(And before anyone calls me out on this incidence of "ridicule", let me point out that the reason that this isn't realistic has been well discussed).

Time is precious, time is money.
So I understand when you don't actually read the posts that you respond to.
Not one person actually made an attempt to answer the original question.
and only one (cwizardone) has a clue.

Fedora is not Enterprise.
IT departments don't LOVE to pay support. I live in Colorado, but what are you smoking?
I gave you just one example of a company that saved thousands by using CentOS over paying
for RHEL. Mine. I've learned that I'm never unique.
Are there hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of similar stories in the naked city?
Redhat is simply closing an avenue where they could collect income and haven't.
Again look at the airlines. What do you pay for these days? Besides everything.
Luggage - check. Carry on Luggage - sometimes. leg room - check. Advance seat assignment - check.
This is the way of corporate america. Maximize revenue. Redhat is no different.
CentOS is going buy buy.
You can't see that? Really?

So what would keep those companies from switching to Scientific Linux? Or Oracle Linux? Or PUIAS/Springdale ?All free and compatible with RHEL.
Red Hat would have to buy those, too, and all that will come up after that. Basically you could make a business model of that: Create a derivative of RHEL, try to make it successful, sell to Red Hat, go back to step one. Never stopping money machine.
But that won't happen, it is just that Red Hat discovered the Freemium model, make the basic thing free and let the customers pay for the premium product. Works not only for Red Hat, but also for Digia and other open source companies.

1 members found this post helpful.