Red Hat changes its distribution policy

Red Hat has changed its policy on RHEL kernel patch information. Red Hat now applies the patches first, then releases the kernel source code as a single tarball. This does not affect ordinary users, but directly affects those rebranding RHEL: it makes it harder to know exactly what Red Hat changed and to optimize the kernel. Does this policy change affect the GNU Public License? No. Red Hat is entitled to bundle patches before distributing them. The following is a statement from Red Hat:

“When we released RHEL 6 approximately four months ago, we changed the release of the kernel package to have all our patches pre-applied. Why did we make this change? To speak bluntly, the competitive landscape has changed. Our competitors in the Enterprise Linux market have changed their commercial approach from building and competing on their own customized Linux distributions, to one where they directly approach our customers offering to support RHEL,” Stevens wrote.

“Frankly, our response is to compete. Essential knowledge that our customers have relied on to support their RHEL environments will increasingly only be available under subscription. The itemization of kernel patches that correlate with articles in our knowledge base is no longer available to our competitors, but rather only to our customers who have recognized the value of RHEL and have thus indirectly funded Red Hat’s contributions to open source that will advance their business now and in the future,” Stevens continued.

We will have to wait and see whether CentOS can release CentOS 6. Personally, I think it can, but I am unsure how long it will take. Anyone who cannot wait and wants a RHEL 6 clone can use Scientific Linux 6.0 (x86-32 and x86-64) in the meantime. Source: Red Hat