In the aftermath of Red Hat’s decision to restrict access to its source code, some of the biggest names in Linux have formed the Open Enterprise Linux Association.
Red Hat angered much of the Linux community when it announced the source code for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux would only be available to paying customers. While possibly legal, the move was widely viewed as a violation of the spirit of open source software and drew widespread condemnation.
Oracle Linux and CIQ’s Rocky Linux, both downstream distros of RHEL, promised to push on and find ways around Red Hat’s new restriction. Meanwhile, SUSE announced a $10 million investment to fork RHEL and its intention to work with the community to further open enterprise Linux development.
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Those plans have come to fruition, with SUSE, Oracle, and CIQ forming the OpenELA, “a collaborative trade association to encourage the development of distributions compatible with” RHEL.
“Collaboration is critical to fostering innovation, which is why we welcome everyone to be part of this association and help us uphold open community standards,” said Thomas Di Giacomo, chief technology and product officer of SUSE. “SUSE is a strong believer in making choice happen. Together with the open source community we will redefine what it truly means to be open and deliver a stronger future for EL.”
“Today’s announcement marks the beginning of a new era for EL,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ. “With OpenELA, CIQ, Oracle and SUSE join forces with the open source community to ensure a stable and resilient future for both upstream and downstream communities to leverage Enterprise Linux.”
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“Many large organizations reached out to us to express the importance of community-driven source code for EL that can act as a starting point for compatible distributions,” said Wim Coekaerts, head of Oracle Linux development, Oracle. “OpenELA is our response to this need, and it represents a commitment to helping the open source community continue to develop compatible EL distributions.”
The OpenELA will begin providing sources for distros endeavoring to be downstream compatible with RHEL later this year.