The news has sent the free software world into a frenzy: as we reported just last week, Red Hat has announced that the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) will no longer be available on git.centos.org. Instead, it will be accessible exclusively to customers, both paid and free, via the Customer Portal.
Red Hat justified this decision as a way to optimize effort and costs. However, many observers interpreted the move as a direct attack on those projects that use package source code transparently and make it freely available in distributions such as AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, or Oracle Linux.
This change has raised many questions about the future of these distributions. AlmaLinux, among the first projects to react, detailed its perspective on the possible path forward in a post.
The post serves to clarify the nature not only of AlmaLinux, but in general of all distributions of this type. A member of the AlmaLinux project noticed that a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 RPM update had not been posted to git.centos.org and speculated that it might be a bug. However, the official response from Red Hat revealed a very different picture:
Red Hat has decided to continue to use the Customer Portal to share source code with our partners and customers, treating CentOS Stream as the element of community collaboration.
So, what will be the fate of AlmaLinux? This is still an open question, especially given that AlmaLinux is a clone of RHEL and must comply with Red Hat's licenses and agreements. At this time, republishing sources acquired through the customer portal may violate those agreements.
Despite the unexpected blow, the AlmaLinux team provided some insights into the future. They revealed that upcoming security updates for AlmaLinux OS Server will be pulled from CentOS Stream and Oracle Linux. These updates will be carefully curated to ensure full compatibility with RHEL, without violating Red Hat's licenses.
Furthermore, AlmaLinux has decided not to adopt the CentOS Stream "rolling" packages, maintaining its intention to remain a RHEL clone. However, how they will achieve this goal remains an open question.
The AlmaLinux board is actively involved in discussions with Red Hat, which are still ongoing. It's unclear whether Red Hat's intention is to phase out all derivative distributions, but AlmaLinux stresses that it has always maintained a good working relationship with Red Hat and hopes this will continue.
This decision by Red Hat has undoubtedly caused considerable concern within the AlmaLinux project. Could Red Hat decide to give special treatment to AlmaLinux and other derivative distributions? Or will they be ignored? Are there other viable solutions?
The future is uncertain, but it is certain that the evolution of this situation will have a significant impact on the free software landscape.
