From: "Peter Lemenkov" <[email protected]> > Not so interesting then - we've got SL and CentOS already.
I've been tracking this thread, and since this comes up regularly, I'd like to point out a couple of considerations. The audience of these considerations vary, so please ignore the ones that are not appropriate for you. - Red Hat products and "EL Rebuilds" There is a difference between building for Red Hat products, including Enterprise Linux (EL), and community (and even commercial) "EL Rebuilds," as I will refer to them. Even if we not only acknowledge "EL Rebuilds" strive for bit-for-bit compatibility, but always assume they are, there are more things than delays in errata and updates, including the fact that only some infrastructure and other products are built as well. Having a Red Hat Network (RHN) account, related subscriptions, etc... to build against is most ideal, including the child channels. - Releasing software as both community and supported If you are an open source project, one that targets both a community release (ideally via EPEL) and a commercial release (ideally as a Red Hat ISV), it's nice to build on Red Hat products. Beyond waiting for "EL Rebuild" to release errata/updates, if you are considering funding your developments with a supported release with the latter, being able to build and reproduce issues on Red Hat stack never hurts either. In fact, I would like to see more commercial ISVs release their open source software directly via Fedora Project EPEL, taking advantage of its benefits. I've now been involved with a number of value-add, open source projects that build on "EL Rebuilds" -- or even Fedora -- but then run into issues that would be addressed if they were developing on Red Hat for release. I.e., by the time they develop/build, the "EL Rebuild" errata/updates are out as well. If they wait for the latter, then their release is even later. And if they are on Fedora, they are often half-way to the next release, if not already there. Having a Red Hat entitlement for development would be much better. - Access to Red Hat Customer Portal I know several professionals on this list, including myself, are not active EPEL developers. We use this list to track developments and other considerations as we leverage Fedora EPEL for distribution of unsupported components in enterprises. Although portions of Red Hat Network is public, including some of the Knowledgebase, having full access is never a bad thing. As a professional, I've found this to be a Godsend, especially when I'm consulting at a site and they have not given me a login for their Red Hat account. With that all said ... - Free Entitlements and the Red Hat Developer Subscription If RHEL entitlements are being offered for EPEL maintainers, I would take advantage of such an offering for the reasons above, as they apply to you. Otherwise, also know that Red Hat continues to maintain a sub-$100 subscription for developers that comes with the platform and middleware stacks. [1] So even if you're not an active EPEL developer, but regularly building and/or integrating Fedora, EPEL, etc... in your enterprise, consider the Developer Subscription [1] for development-usage, such as building and testing. I'm still surprised how many people are not aware that Red Hat continues to offer a subscription for Developers, and has e-mailed various offerings over the years. E.g., I'm still using my RHN account that I originally registered for Red Hat Linux almost a decade ago, and have taken Red Hat up offers ever since they converted my Red Hat Linux account into Red Hat Enterprise Linux entitlements back in 2003. [1] https://store.redhat.com/apps/store/developers/ -- Bryan J Smith - Professional, Technical Annoyance _______________________________________________ epel-devel-list mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/epel-devel-list
