On Sun, 28 Oct 2018 at 20:40, Patrick O'Callaghan <pocallaghan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I know this is strictly OT, but I suggest it's of some interest to this
list:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/28/ibm-to-acquire-red-hat-in-deal-valued-at-34-billion.html
O
Fedora users have to be concerned with changes at RH that may affect the future
of Fedora. The purchase of RH by IBM should remind us that linux users depend
heavily on open source licenses controlled by developers, including those working
for RH and IBM, and on patent licenses granted by corporate interests, including
IBM and Microsoft. One of Fedora's business values is the free testing users perform
for RH. This value has eroded over time. More testing is being automated and is
often incorported into build systems. These tests often originated with end users,
but if these approaches are successful, the need for end user testing will be
greatly reduced.
The other business value of Fedora is the pool of users, particularly younger
users, who will be comfortable with future RHEL releases and make it easier
and cheaper for RHEL customers to find workers.
A major source of bugs that are found in end-user testing is conflicts between
different applications (for example, app A requires libxx built with option P enabled
and option Q disabled, while app B requires libxx with option P disabled and option
Q enabled) are a major source of bugs in linux. This can be seen in the uses of
static linking for applications such as TeX Live that are available in binary versions
that run on multiple linux distros. Virtualization makes it feasible to provide
applications with custom environments that provide a set of libraries tuned for the
particular requirements of the application.
Another change that affects the viability of Fedora is the pace of changes needed
to address security issues, which has increased interest in rolling distributions
over long-term releases.
George N. White III
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