this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Fedora is a community distro. Red hat just contributes a lot.
This is the contentious part and also why I left Fedora.
Don't get me wrong, you'll be hard pressed to find a better community, better support or even a more innovative bunch. Besides RedHat's involvement, Fedora has been in the vanguard for desktop technologies like PipeWire, Flatpaks, Wayland, heck they were one of the first to push systemd.
But my problem is that since RedHat holds sway over the Fedora leadership we cannot guarantee that the community will have the users best interests at heart.
So when people say "use a community distro", they mean a non-captured one.
And again; Fedora is awesome, the community is awesome, been using it for years, but switched to NixOS like a month ago because I don't trust the direction RedHat/IBM is taking Fedora.
Most likely they'll push some of these projects to Fedora, make them maintain the projects, then some years down the line sell those projects as apart of their service.
There is a conflict of interest here and a clear opportunistic angle. RedHat wants to use the Fedora community as a free of charge testing grounds, in effect creating a userbase of free QA testers for future software.
This is predatory, it is an insult to the community, but the community is captured, and therefore will play ball with RedHat. This is the problem. If the community would give some assurances and protections, that would be nice, but so far it seems the Fedora community is more than willing to play ball with IBM/RedHat.
While yes red hat may try something like that, they also maintain lots of packages and develop technologies that fedora uses, so fedora is still benefiting from said arrangement. It is a trade off here, but I would argue it’s more than worth it as it’s better to be free qa and get decent software than not be anybody’s qa but either not have or have poor quality software.
WWLTD?
I always thought Fedora was his preferred distro.
Is it why do Redhat lawyers have any say on Fedora then?
Red hat owns the trademarks as fedora isn’t a real legal entity. Red hat employees also hold most spots in the council, and financially support the project. The council spots are voted upon so they don’t have to be red hatters that’s just who we chose.