Meta has blown 10’s of Billions on the their failed metaverse and you’re wondering if they will have a team of devs on Lemmy? They already do - it will start with the protocol first, not the UI, but you’ll start seeing PRs there too.
My understanding is that if you redistribute the source they provide (whether Paywalled or free dev account) that they can and plan to 1) revoke your payed support access or 2) revoke your free dev account.
That means that people are inevitably going to share out RH source from free dev accounts right off the bat, and just cycle through new dev accounts. That’s an escalating war where they watermark/fingerprint their source so they know who’s redistributing, and any model or distro built on this won’t last or carry considerable risk. Enterprise customers are unlikely to take this risk, though. So this sets up a pretty stupid game and generally goes against the spirit of FOSS if not the letter.
I’d like to address one statement you made above: CentOS Stream is NOT RHEL source. It’s effectively the beta branch. Which means it’s not bug-for-bug which is quite frankly critical to any dev, enterprise or otherwise, and the key reason they moved it upstream of RHEL - because it screws over what they consider to be freeloaders on purpose. They may be targeting other distros, but it affects all developers who just want to test their applications. Now that dev has to explore options for a dev account, be careful not to redistribute or lose that access, etc.
Jeff does an excellent job of explaining it and whether or not RHEL contributes to the kernel or other source, stating it the way you do is akin to giving them an excuse. Oracle contributes. Users contribute (by testing, submitting bugs, providing guidance and configuration templates or advice), Countless Devs contribute. All of that should not excuse IBM Red Hat’s behavior because they want to squeeze more profit out of a model that’s not setup well. The fact that their SNAP is essentially “trust me bro” now and with this move, I’m done with anything dependent upon RH. That may not mean much in my home lab setup with maybe a dozen boxes, but at work, I am in a position to influence thousands upon thousands of instances and I’m just one person paying attention to this. RH is focusing on short term profits over long term health and without disclosing anything, I’m confident will swiftly bite them in the ass. And it will be their own doing.
Edit: I should also note that making CentOS Stream the beta sets them up for potentially new customers who do not want to be on that bleeding edge - which is a risk most established enterprise is unlikely to undertake over the more stable RHEL, which will fill their coffers for the support model.
Well, the alternative is competing based on what you are actually selling in this model: Support for this product. If I can clone your distro and do better at supporting it than YOU do or at least good enough to sell my support, then you have a situation of possibilities:
Your support sucks
You’re charging too much or don’t have the right market / price options available
Your support in general is not really necessary, and thus your business model is weak in the first place. Another way of saying this one is that you aren’t offering anying particularly unique for new features on top of what’s already freely available to sweeten the deal beyond selling support.
You’ve done other things to your customers to weaken your relationships, and thus income flow
Locking out those “second run” vendors who are riding your coat tails is going to be a self-defeating path, however you slice it. Oracle has deep pockets - they are unlikely to sit back on this one as an example problem. The bigger problem is violation of the spirit of the GPL which alienates devs. You’re correct that they may only be inconvenienced, but inconveniencing any developer is a first class ticket to them working around your shenanigans or just opting out of supporting your platform in general. I already know 2 vendors in my small world who are subtly indicating support for RHEL and CentOS is being considered with some pushes on their customers to consider other distros. That’s in the last few days!
Anyway, they are throwing out the good will they have left with the bathwater of trying to short circuit low-bar competitors because they want to squeeze profit. You may not be wrong to stand by them, but I’m taking my support (and business) elsewhere as a result of their stance. A recent post looks like they are doubling down on the message.
Haven’t deleted either of both of my 14 yr accounts yet, but I haven’t been on Reddit since the blackout and have plans to nuke it all after I navigate new subscriptions and think it through.
FWIW, I find the experience a refreshing re-start, just like when Digg and Slashdot fucked up and I’m already seeing shit posting, memes, and fresh content galore on Lemmy in just the last week. I doubt I’ll go back to Reddit except for some esoteric solutions that I find in searches.
Anon ends his day at the kinoplex (sh.itjust.works)
100x Faster Than Wi-Fi: Li-Fi, Light-Based Networking Standard Released (www.tomshardware.com)
Wait vintage memes or vintage beans?? (i.imgur.com)
Why are people anti Facebook joining the fediverse? (lemmy.ca)
The arguments I’ve heard about tracking etc are misguided and don’t understand the actual risks....
I feel atacked by this! (lemmy.ml)
Jeff Geerling stops development for Redhat (www.youtube.com)
An exceptionally well explained rant that I find myself in total agreement with.
Lemmy 3 day no poop challenge (lemmy.ca)
As Reddit Crushes Protests, Its User Traffic Returns to Normal (www.pcmag.com)