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Why would anyone use a server OS that's a fork of another server OS, provided by a group of 3rd-parties with their own competing enterprise distros? I'm sure t

Why would anyone use a server OS that's a fork of another server OS, provided by a group of 3rd-parties with their own competing enterprise distros? I'm sure there's a reason for it with all the discussions, but if I want to use CentOS, why wouldn't I just use CentOS Stream that RH is providing? If I want RHEL, I'll go get RHEL that afaik is also free. And if I want to see the future of RHEL, there's Fedora Server. Why would I want to use forks of RHEL instead of the 3 real and supported RH distros?

themerone 3y ago
RHEL is only free for a limited number of personal or developer licenses.
- Espionage724 3y ago
  What's the problem with that? I don't know the exact limitations, but for a personal home lab that seems fine. For companies, I imagine they could either pay proper for RHEL, use free CentOS Stream or Fedora, or some other server distro like Ubuntu or SUSE. Why is there such a need for RHEL specifically?
  - nobody9999 3y ago
    >Why is there such a need for RHEL specifically? Just a guess, but I'd posit that revenues from RHEL support contracts pay the salaries of CentOS Stream and Fedora developers and maintainers. I could be completely wrong, but given that the latter two feed the former, it would make sense.
lproven 3y ago
> a group of 3rd-parties with their own competing enterprise distros Small point of info: Only one (1) of these companies has its own distro family: SUSE. OUL is a CentOS clone. So is Rocky.
- Espionage724 3y ago
  Why do OUL and Rocky exist if not to compete with RHEL?
  - lproven 3y ago
    Because people expect to be able to get RHEL for free? Why does OUL exist -- there are two _real_ stories. [1] Oracle wanted Jboss. RH bought JBoss, allegedly to spite Oracle. Oracle retaliated with a RHEL clone. Side note: I used to work on some JBoss documentation. Probably a few lines I wrote are still in there. The strong feeling I got inside RH was "we hate Java and want to kill it." Weird when you're a staffer working on Java products. [2] Oracle was considering a hostile takeover of RH and launched a RHEL clone to make the share price drop. It didn't work. Note, these 2 theories are not mutually exclusive.

themerone 3y ago

RHEL is only free for a limited number of personal or developer licenses.

Espionage724 3y ago
What's the problem with that? I don't know the exact limitations, but for a personal home lab that seems fine. For companies, I imagine they could either pay proper for RHEL, use free CentOS Stream or Fedora, or some other server distro like Ubuntu or SUSE. Why is there such a need for RHEL specifically?
- nobody9999 3y ago
  >Why is there such a need for RHEL specifically? Just a guess, but I'd posit that revenues from RHEL support contracts pay the salaries of CentOS Stream and Fedora developers and maintainers. I could be completely wrong, but given that the latter two feed the former, it would make sense.

lproven 3y ago

> a group of 3rd-parties with their own competing enterprise distros Small point of info: Only one (1) of these companies has its own distro family: SUSE. OUL is a CentOS clone. So is Rocky.

Espionage724 3y ago
Why do OUL and Rocky exist if not to compete with RHEL?
- lproven 3y ago
  Because people expect to be able to get RHEL for free? Why does OUL exist -- there are two _real_ stories. [1] Oracle wanted Jboss. RH bought JBoss, allegedly to spite Oracle. Oracle retaliated with a RHEL clone. Side note: I used to work on some JBoss documentation. Probably a few lines I wrote are still in there. The strong feeling I got inside RH was "we hate Java and want to kill it." Weird when you're a staffer working on Java products. [2] Oracle was considering a hostile takeover of RH and launched a RHEL clone to make the share price drop. It didn't work. Note, these 2 theories are not mutually exclusive.