I’d argue that it’s really in a gray area of open source. It’s not publicly available, which is part of the definition of open source. You have to have an account to access the more stable downstream, and while the account is free, my understanding is that anything released using said code is restricted to Red Hat’s agreements. This is also causing problems for AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux since they can no longer act as downstream distros, which is incredibly important for stability and why people were up in arms over CentOS switching up upstream to begin with. Relying on upstream code isn’t great for stable software.
As for Fedora, the fact that it’s opt out instead of opt in concerns me. At least with Ubuntu it’s opt in. If this was the only recent change then I wouldn’t consider it much of an issue, but between making it opt out and the changes they’ve done with RHEL, not to mention IBM’s history of anti-competitive behavior, I have some serious doubts to their long term intentions. Besides, the feedback had been overwhelmingly negative but it’s definitely not stopping them from attempting to push this.
If they’re skirting the GPL and definition of open source like this now, then what other changes are they going to try to do in the next 5-10 years? IBM being involved complicates the situation in ways most other distros don’t have to worry about.
How so? It’s misleading in a way, but true in another. RHEL is still open source, but the only way to access that it is via a subscription. Sure, you can get a free subscription, but it’s still hidden behind that. As for Fedora, 40 is planned to add telemetry. That may change, but for now it’s a real possibility.
I’d argue that it’s really in a gray area of open source. It’s not publicly available, which is part of the definition of open source. You have to have an account to access the more stable downstream, and while the account is free, my understanding is that anything released using said code is restricted to Red Hat’s agreements. This is also causing problems for AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux since they can no longer act as downstream distros, which is incredibly important for stability and why people were up in arms over CentOS switching up upstream to begin with. Relying on upstream code isn’t great for stable software.
As for Fedora, the fact that it’s opt out instead of opt in concerns me. At least with Ubuntu it’s opt in. If this was the only recent change then I wouldn’t consider it much of an issue, but between making it opt out and the changes they’ve done with RHEL, not to mention IBM’s history of anti-competitive behavior, I have some serious doubts to their long term intentions. Besides, the feedback had been overwhelmingly negative but it’s definitely not stopping them from attempting to push this.
If they’re skirting the GPL and definition of open source like this now, then what other changes are they going to try to do in the next 5-10 years? IBM being involved complicates the situation in ways most other distros don’t have to worry about.