[OT] Is there a future for CentOS or systems to run on your web server

Bernard Devlin bdrunrev at gmail.com
Sat Aug 1 05:26:22 EDT 2009


It is _the_ primary strength of free software solutions (in the strict
GPL/LGPL sense) that one is not at a dead end if a project has only
one primary developer and that person no longer continues development.
 One has access to the source code and can continue development.  If
the source of a product is not available then it is not open source.
If one doesn't have the skills to continue development oneself, that
is another matter.

I have recently started looking at an open source project that had no
development for three years.   The guy who worked on it intensively
for the preceding 5 years no longer has the time.  However, his work
is not wasted, and the project may yet live again.  I can certainly
make use of it as it is, and have already identified and fixed some
bugs myself.  If it meets my needs and I feel confident of my ability
to push it forward as a project, then I can either be granted write
access to the code repository, or I can fork it.  I already have all
the source code from subversion.

This morning I downloaded another LGPL project, and it too came with
all the source code without me even going looking for it.  In fact, I
use several free software projects where there are few developers
and/or limited development, but it doesn't give me any cause for
concern.  When I decide a project is one that I may well be depending
on, I make sure I download a copy of the source code.  It's my
dependency on proprietary tools that gives me cause for concern.

I doubt many of use who use Rev would have the skills to continue the
development of the engine in the event that RunRev ceased development.
 But that is immaterial since the code is not open anyway.  Our
dependency on RunRev is far greater than the dependency of those who
are using CentOS.

This is not a criticism of RunRev.  They have to adopt whichever
policies suit their business plan.  But it's one reason why I have
kept up with software assurance for Revolution, even in the years when
I haven't used Revolution.

I'm not saying that I would be able to fork CentOS :-)  And I strongly
believe that anyone who depends on complex server configurations
should be using something like cfengine or puppet.  Configuration
management tools such as those would certainly make the migration
between different server providers easier.

Bernard.

On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 11:38 PM, Judy Perry<jperryl at ecs.fullerton.edu> wrote:
> Our department has been using CentOS (which is what I'm logged into at the
> moment) for our departmental server for at least a year now with no problems
> that I've heard of.
>
> The news about the head going Away WithOut Leave is disconcerting, as my
> neighbor's employer, a pretty good sized monthly membership services
> company, is probably going to be switching over to Cent OS...  better warn
> her I guess.
>
> Judy



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