[linux-elitists] RedHat drops the other shoe

[Andrew Mathews]

Lee wrote:
<snip>
>>
>>Correct me if I'm wrong but Red Hat is open-source isn't it? 

Yes, but that does NOT mean free. It means that they can do whatever 
they want, whether it's selling one copy a year at 1 million dollars, a 
million copies at one dollar, or giving it away. The only requirement is 
that any changes they make be released back to the community. There's no 
requirement for them to even provide a distribution, iso's or rpm's. 
Only the sources. That's why any freely available iso image is done 
above and beyond the legal requirement, and should be considered a gift 
for free. Failure to remember this makes most people consider it 
mandatory that a distro be freely downloadable, which it isn't. Any one 
of them could say (like Caldera did) that they're only going to release 
the source code, you'll have to download, compile, and build your own 
iso's. Thankfully, most don't.

> I seem to recall that Caldera went down a similiar road and their apologists applauded 
> them for wanting to make money so they could continue churning out 
> open-source for a fee. Now the son of Caldera (SCO) wants to sue everybody 
> who uses linux. Kinda makes you wonder when RH is going to sue everybody 
> using RPM.
> 
<snip>
-- 
Andrew Mathews
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