I do not expect an RHEL/CentOS cancellation in my lifetime. I expect IBM will keep them thriving and available for a very long time.
However, big companies can do stupid things, and cancelling RHEL, or ending "free" CentOS, is something a clueless IBM CEO might attempt someday. I am designing systems that others will maintain and upgrade for decades. A reluctant switchover to, say, Debian is easier to manage now than later. I hope that will NEVER be necessary. Debian could be mismanaged as well; this happened with X and Gnome. I rely on Scientific Linux and variants because large organizations like Fermilabs and CERN and LIGO do. I hope these organizations have contingency plans. I assume that if IBM behaves badly in the future, our international community will grumble, plead, and then fork, keeping systems like RPM and yum functional for approximately forever. Is this a prudent assumption? Keith -- Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com
