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<a href="http://www.redhat.com">Red Hat</a> has decided it’s no
going to be Mr. Nice Linux anymore for <a
href="http://www.redhat.com/rhel">Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)</a>
clone makers such as <a href="http://www.oracle.com">Oracle</a> and
<a href="http://www.centos.org">CentOS </a>. Sure, in open-source,
you share the code. That’s rule one. But, that doesn’t mean you need
to make it <em>easy</em> for your rivals.
<p>What Red Hat has done, for the last several months, is release
its version of the Linux kernel with all its own patches
incorporated into the RHEL code. Before that, pre-<a
href="http://practical-tech.com/infrastructure/red-hat-announces-red-hat-enterprise-linux-6/3249">RHEL6,
which was released in November 2010</a>, Red Hat released the
vanilla Linux code with its improvements and fixes in separate
patches. This method made it very easy for an Oracle or another
Linux distributor to see exactly what Red Had had done and thus
made it easy for them to pick and choose which patches they’d
adopt. Now, it’s much harder both to do this and to copycat RHEL.</p>
<p>As Joe Brockmeier aptly put it, “<a
href="http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8414">It’s sort of like asking
someone for a recipe for the family’s chocolate chip cookies,
and getting cookie batter instead.</a>” Sure you can tease out
what the ingredients are, but it’s not easy.<br>
</p>
<p>[More]<br>
</p>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/red-hat-turns-on-oracle-and-other-red-hat-linux-clone-makers/8485">http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/red-hat-turns-on-oracle-and-other-red-hat-linux-clone-makers/8485</a>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it
tougher for sober people to own cars." - Unknown
</pre>
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