[PLUG] RedHat flubs, AlmaLinux arrives Re: Is Free Software ...

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 07:29:44AM -0700, Ben Koenig wrote:
> ... selfish screaming coming from redhat.

RedHat/IBM is digging it's own grave. 

The new kid on the RedHat-Compatible block is AlmaLinux,
a community-supported binary compatible clone of RedHat
initiated by CloudLinux.

CloudLinux promises a million dollar annual cash donation.
To date, many donated hours of migration and support and
testing from many outside volunteers in addition to paid
staff at CloudLinux doing the porting and copylefting 
and legal work.  

The promise is support for AlmaLinux 8 (RHEL8 replacement)
until (at least) 2029, with the assumption that the
community will also provide effort.  CloudLinux has 500,000
deployments, much less than IBM/RedHat/CentOS has, but they
clearly plan to push IBM/RedHat off the pedestal.

A big push by AlmaLinux is ARM support; those little
processor cores are growing up.  There will likely be
a lot of cross-fertilization with Chrome and Android.

That said ... I started using RedHat Linux because it was
compatible with the $$$$$ integrated circuit design tools
I used for my business.  Now that integrated circuits are
incredibly large and expensive, and toolsets cost more
than $$$$$$$, I am mostly retired, I no longer need remain
in the RedHat orbit.  I'm learning about Debian, and I
hope that learning will stick through old age.  

While I would be more comfortable making the small jump
to AlmaLinux, the bigger jump to Debian puts me closer 
to most of the rest of PLUG.  

You folks better be worth it :-)

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com