this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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Should we be wary of Red Hat? (lemmy.cafe)
submitted 1 day ago by propitiouspanda@lemmy.cafe to c/linux@programming.dev
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They were bought by IBM a few years back, but even aside from that they’re a corporation and they care about making money above all else.

It looks like Red Hat is doing its damnedest to consolidate as much power for themselves within the Linux ecosystem.

I don’t think the incessant Fedora shilling is unrelated.

It seems like there isn’t much criticism of the company or their tactics, and I’m curious if any of you think that should change.

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[–] milicent_bystandr@lemm.ee 1 points 48 minutes ago

Normally I sit back from this sort of drama: there are certainly bad actors and bad attitudes in various places, but in the end, for most purposes, it's just another distribution?

But one commenter here, by looking so strongly like an idiotic shill, has now turned me against RH and Fedora. Hopefully the sour taste will fade soon and I'll forget, but for now: Use Debian-based or Arch-based, people! Or SUSE! (I know they had their controversial moment, but AFAIK all is forgiven.) Or another! But keep control and consolidation out of Red's hat.

[–] sudo_halt@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 5 hours ago

Absolutely, we should talk about this more. Red Hat and IBM can swing their dick around and make literally any change they want to Linux. They control a lot of things, like FreeDesktopOrg (how free is that free?)

I am wary of their bullshit. We need to make sure to keep alternatives to big corporate software in case they decide to fuck us over.

Use GPL software, above all else, and remember, if GPL wasn't effective in cutting the corpo hand they wouldn't spread propaganda against it.

[–] gopher@programming.dev 20 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Red Hat probably contributes to Open Source and Linux more than any other company around. Are they perfect? Of course not, and it's fair and good to discuss and criticise them when warranted. But overall they seem to contribute positively much more than negatively.

How are they "doing its damnedest to consolidate as much power for themselves within the Linux ecosystem." exactly ?

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Amount of contributions doesn't equal quality, mind that. RedHat also does work to sink projects which don't fit their strategy for Linux development, and I want to ask by what right they even have such a strategy and try to impose it upon others.

[–] Gobbel2000@programming.dev 22 points 1 day ago

Remember that in 2023 RedHat restricted access to the source code of RHEL packages, which had a big impact to lots of server distros. This article explains really well why that's problematic:

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 36 points 1 day ago

Not really

It isn't a black and white thing. Redhat simply exists like anything else. I don't like everything they do but they also fund a ton of research and development. If Fedora ever becomes problematic people will just move. Ubuntu desktop used to be good but after it turned to shit many people moved.

[–] zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 28 points 1 day ago (10 children)

IBM sucks. They have bought up a bunch of small data centers and made them worse.

I'm still pissed about CentOS as well. Long live Rocky.

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Alma is actually a real community distro. They deserve so much more support than Rocky does.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

TIL; though I moved my servers to Debian ... having the ability to sanely upgrade without a reinstall is a major plus.

[–] nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 3 points 19 hours ago

@Dark_Arc @LeFantome I've had mixed luck with debian in this regard. Bullseye to Bookworm was a smooth upgrade but some of the others have not gone so well.

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm pretty sure Alma had a way to upgrade major releases. I know RHEL has Leapp, but it is always recommended to do a greenfield reinstall. Although with image mode and ostree that is changing.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Interesting ... yeah it looks like Leapp can do some upgrades for Alma and possibly others as well (TIL). I'm not sure how well that upgrade process would compare / be supported vs Debian though.

What's the image mode and ostree stuff? Is that required for RHEL and/or Alma going forward?

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

No image mode is not required. It is the immutable mode for RHEL. Using image builder and bootc to create and upgrade your images. Ostree is sort of like putting your entire OS in git. For an upgrade it checks out a new branch, updates that branch, then you have to reboot into that branch. That makes the upgrade atomic and gives you the ability to rollback. It's what Core OS uses and what the Fedora Atomic desktops use. It's a much bigger thing in RHEL 10 and I suspect will take over a lot of the duties of Satellite at some point.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Ahhh so leapp will simply become less relevant because a better upgrade mechanism will take over

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

That's my thoughts anyway. The entire linux world seems to be heading the immutable direction.

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fuck Rocky. They are a leech on open source. They break user agreements to get at Red Hat source and don't contribute upstream. Use Alma, they actually work with the community and contribute upstream.

[–] zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Ok, but why is there even an agreement required to access to source to something, uh, open source?

[–] LeFantome@programming.dev 4 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The GPL says you can get the source to software that people distribute to you. Red Hat does not distribute to Rocky.

[–] zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 2 points 18 hours ago

Seems like they use that to circumvent other parts of the gpl, in spirit and possibly in the letter of the law. Others have more and better things to say about it than I:

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/dear-red-hat-are-you-dumb

[–] FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Because CIQ, the company that bankrolls Rocky, was poaching Red Hat customers. They were hiring Red Hat sales people, then using their contacts to swoop in and drastically undercut Red Hat because they don't do any engineering. It is an effort to stop leeches like CIQ/Rocky.

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 2 points 15 hours ago

They were hiring Red Hat sales people, then using their contacts to swoop in and drastically undercut Red Hat because they don't do any engineering.

There's an easy solution to that. RedHat could just pay their salespeople what they are worth and keep them at RedHat.

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[–] sudo@programming.dev 17 points 1 day ago

Yeah but its pretty easy to avoid them. They survive on government contracts not community support. There's lots of better alternatives than Fedora.

[–] friend_of_satan@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

They make you sign into their support portal to view most of their documentation and download most of their software. That right there is a deal breaker for me because it violates the spirit of open source.

[–] not3ottersinacoat@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I'm wary of them and I refuse to use Fedora (because it's basically their testing bed) due to their support of the US military, in addition to the reasons you've mentioned. Also, I'm trying my damnedest to #BoycottUSA

I prefer LMDE. It doesn't check all my wants, but it finds a great balance and I don't feel like an unpaid tester.

[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

due to their support of the US military

What?

[–] not3ottersinacoat@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FizzyOrange@programming.dev 1 points 3 hours ago

Sure... I mean why are you wary of them because they work with the US military?

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