this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
-7 points (0.0% liked)
Open Source
31116 readers
288 users here now
All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!
Useful Links
- Open Source Initiative
- Free Software Foundation
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Software Freedom Conservancy
- It's FOSS
- Android FOSS Apps Megathread
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to the open source ideology
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
- !libre_culture@lemmy.ml
- !libre_software@lemmy.ml
- !libre_hardware@lemmy.ml
- !linux@lemmy.ml
- !technology@lemmy.ml
Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The issue is that it's not about RedHat not wanting to redistribute "their source code". The various Linux distros are the result of a huge number of voluntary contributions from tens of thousands of people (many of which happened before RedHat was even a thing). The only reason all of those people agreed to contribute is because it was licensed in such a way that no one could later come in and take all that work for themselves. That is a huge advantage and the code that underlies RedHat's business simply wouldn't exist without it. The disadvantage (from an individual seller making money perspective) is that you can't charge for the code itself based on any IP rights in that code and have to make money from accessory services (warranties, support, educational resources, enhanced security, customization and installation, SaaS or IaaS). RedHat not only encouraged the community to contribute, it put itself out as a champion of the free (as in freedom, not beer) software movement. Now it's trying to sneakily hinder those same freedoms. Aside from any business model arguments, that's why people are pissed.