I see a lot of posts about Redhat for putting their code base behind a paywall. I’ve only been using Linux as my main desktop OS for a couple of years now. Someone recommended Fedora at the time, and I’ve been happy with it. I had previously tried PopOS, Mint, and Ubuntu, but none of them convinced me to switch from Windows full time until I tried again with Fedora.
How will what Redhat is doing affect Fedora for the home user? Should I start considering something else?
Edit: thanks for all of the responses! Sticking with fedora for now it is.
Fedora is designed as a relatively stable testing ground for widespread use. It is incredibly unlikely that they’d ever even want to restrict its distribution, and nobody is signing any contracts with Fedora, so they’d have no leverage to stop us from doing it even if they did want to.
Long term who knows what stupid things Redhat might try to get up to, and even if they don’t make any catastrophic decisions the whole project could potentially start to drift away from the rest of Linux if they keep making smaller divisive decisions, but that’s both unlikely, and in the far distant future if it ever does happen. For the more foreseeable future there is absolutely nothing to worry about with Fedora, other than possibly ethical concerns that you’re helping to bug test for the makers RHEL, if you care about that.
for you nothing will happen; Fedora is seen as upstream from RHEL and for desktop use that isn’t something that should concern you.
for most people it is going to be a good desktop distro built on next generation technologies (wayland and pipewire for example), anything that happens under the hood should not affect your desktop.
Fedora also has a server edition that works perfectly fine if you are not trying to re-sell it to large companies that need all the compliance BS that RHEL has.
Red hat is based off fedora, so nothing will change with fedora!
Many who won’t bother with RHEL any more will not package their third party applications for any RPM based distro.
Most RPMs for third party applications are already packaged specifically for Fedora rather than RHEL.
I would say that depends on desktop vs. server software.
As of right now (and realistically the foreseeable future), nothing changes for Fedora. Fedora is useful to RedHat as a proving ground for features that may someday land in RHEL.
The only thing directly concerning for Fedora is that RedHat is the main corporate sponsor. If RedHat needs to cut costs, they could cut back on paying for infrastructure costs of the Fedora project. They could direct their employees to spend less time around the Fedora project. They could concentrate further on CentOS stream instead, which is probably not an attractive alternative for the typical Fedora user.
Has something recently changed? Fedora has always been the fully open source upstream to RHEL but I’m not aware of any recent changes to their model.
I’m fine with an open source company keeping some of their sauce secret. Their contributions to open source for decades are a net gain for the community.
But yeah fedora is the only other bleeding edge distro I would ever use besides arch. Definitely still trustworthy as far as I know
I think there is just a fear that fedora will change at some point.
RedHat is a major sponsor of Fedora, but Fedora is a separate entity, so there is no know plan of them moving away from being a registered public good and no good reason for them to.
It probably won’t affect Fedora because that’s already a consumer-oriented distro. For me, it’s a philosophical question. Do you want to run a distro that is supported by a company who would behave that way?
What did you find in Fedora that you didn’t find in the other distros? Was it something about the graphical interface, or was it more about the system packaging ecosystem and developers?
I like Fedora because it works with my Brother printer, lol. Only two distros that can connect to it are Fedora and Ubuntu. Ubuntu had too much bloat for me.
RHEL is downstream from CentOS Stream which is downstream from Fedora. People are complaining that the changes RHEL makes from CentOS Stream (and thus Fedora) are not public. There is no direct effect on Fedora.
That said some will still not be using Fedora bc they disagree with the ethics of Red-Hat’s decision (although I’m surprised they didn’t have an issue with Red-Hat before)
The way I see it, it’s like putting a velvet rope around the buffet. Annoying? Yes. A deal-breaker for your beloved Fedora? Not quite.
You see, Fedora is the free, community-driven sibling in the Redhat family. Its code base will remain open and accessible, so no need to mourn its loss just yet.
So, should you abandon ship? Only if you find Fedora’s hat no longer fits. But if you’re a fan of its cutting-edge nature and ease of use, I’d say sit tight. In the tumultuous world of tech, change is the only constant.
Just remember to keep your life jacket handy. 😉
Its code base will remain open and accessible
This is actually the key subject. However…
Only if you find Fedora’s hat no longer fits.
This will only be accelerated by maintainers and developers voicing their intent of just not packaging to any RPM distro.
That’s a fair point I hadn’t considered. I guess time will tell hey?
My understanding is that Fedora is upstream of RHEL, and more of a “sister” than a “descendent”. I don’t believe it will be affected at all.
Of course, Red Hat may yet put less effort into maintaining Fedora to increase profitability (they’re a huge sponsor), but it will not be going proprietary. I think Fedora is a safe bet.
I don’t think the current Red Hat controversy will have much impact on Fedora. There are the three reasons why I think so:
- While Fedora is not a fully independent distribution, the Fedora Council has both members from Red Hat and members from the community. It may be wishful thinking, but I believe that, if Red Hat tried something iffy with Fedora, the community (including people in leading positions) would protest.
- Fedora is upstream from RHEL, so it doesn’t directly profit from RHEL source codes being fully open. Instead, it’s the other way around; Fedora’s sources are the basis of CentOS and then RHEL, so any bugs fixed in Fedora benefit RHEL.
- Fedora is also Red Hat’s tool for influencing the Linux ecosystem at large. When they want other people start using some technology (Flatpak, PulseAudio etc.), Fedora is a good way of disseminating it.
P.S. There might be some inaccuracies. I am just a user; I am neither a developer nor in any leadership role.
P.P.S. Please excuse any spelling and grammar mistakes. English is not my first language.
Never hurts to have a
Plan Bat hand if Redhat decided to make more unpleasant decisions. Since you already tried some Debian based distros, maybe you’d like to take a look at what openSUSE has to offer.
