Enthusiast #1: "Well, they developed and continue to support Red Hat Enterprise Linux, one of the most popular enterprise Linux distributions."
Leader: "Oh, well obviously we need that. That's true."
Enthusiast #2: "And don't forget about the Fedora Project! It's a community-driven distribution that helps test out new technologies before they make their way into RHEL."
Leader: "Oh, right, the Fedora Project. Yes, yes, we should be grateful for that."
Enthusiast #3: "Plus, they've made significant contributions to the development of the Linux kernel, especially when it comes to virtualization, security, and performance."
Leader: "Ah, yes, the kernel. You're absolutely right, that's a big one."
Enthusiast #4: "And what about all the open-source software projects they've developed and supported, like the GNOME, JBoss and Ansible?"
Leader: "Well, obviously we couldn't get by without those."
Enthusiast #5: "And let's not forget about their collaboration with other companies and organizations to advance open-source initiatives, like OpenStack and Kubernetes."
Leader: "Yes, yes, very impressive. But apart from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Fedora Project, contributions to the Linux kernel, open-source software projects, and collaboration with other organizations, what have Red Hat ever done for us?"
Red Hat basically made linux on the server a reality.
It provided a solid and serious corporate backing to that idea, providing not only software implementation and bug fixes, but also (and maybe more importantly) guidance, training, consulting.
Basically bridging the tech world with the corporate world.
All this in a time where the computing industry was divided among Microsoft and proprietary unix vendors.
Anybody not acknowledging these points would be dishonest at best.
I LOL’d a bit at JBoss, only because how radically history changed from App Servers ruling the world to practically disappearing over night into the maw of Spring boot (and it’s ancestors).
I felt I was reading toward some sort of punchline, but it didn't come, or I didn't get it. Like how the leader acknowledges all the goodness, but still doesn't want to pay for it, perhaps. Though maybe that's not really a Red Hat problem?
I can do just fine without GNOME. In fact, I think the Linux ecosystem would have been much better off if it had never been developed, or maybe left to die after the Qt license issues were sorted out.
As for the popularity of RHEL, how much of that is because the US government is probably their biggest customer, and basically mandates its use for any application needing Linux? That's not a grassroots type of popularity.
Still to this day, THE BEST exam i ever sat was the Redhat Certified Engineer. I guess like many folks here i’ve sat a ton of exams over the years but none compares to that one. I can’t really think of another case where i loved an exam.
It might have all changed by now, I did my RHCE exam on RHEL5.5 so we’re talking many moons ago before switching careers to development.
I was one of the first people to write RHEL back when I think they were still figuring out how they should do the exam.
There was a written portion followed by a practical portion in a lab where you had to configure services/features, followed by a break where they would mess small things up that you had to troubleshoot and fix.
I had a feeling they were going to break things, so I made sure I installed tripwire on each machine so I knew exactly what files they touched. I was done that portion in under 15 minutes. When I came out, the proctor said "Did you give up?" to which I replied "Nope - got 'em all I believe."
I think they removed tripwire from the available binaries after that :-)
> I guess like many folks here i’ve sat a ton of exams over the years
At the risk of sounding like a caveman I have to admit that I haven't sat a single exam in my professional life. Am I losing out on something? What benefits have these exams brought to you that could not have been happened without them? Seriously considering if I should start signing up for them. And if I want to sign up for them, where do I start?
Red Hat deprecated that exam a couple years ago, and the content it tested for (provisioning servers of various kinds and security) simply got scrapped completely.
I attempted that exam right before it was to disappear permanently, on RHEL 7.4, but did not pass unfortunately.
Red Hat was 26 years old in 2019, and then they were acquired by IBM.
But that’s only if you count the starting year as 1993; Red Hat the actual company seems to have been started in 1995, from what I read. In that case, they would have been 28 years old today.
> But that’s only if you count the starting year as 1993; Red Hat the actual company seems to have been started in 1995, from what I read. In that case, they would have been 28 years old today.
The distro was not created before 1994 either, so looks like they're counting the moment the founders got together as the creation date (before the distro, before the company) ?!
They came together with the `SAMS RedHat Linux 7.0 Unleased` book I bought as I did not want to go through the same pain I went with my 33600 pstn downloading slackware 7's cd#1 in 14 days.
My first was from a Redhat 5.2 book, some time in the first half of 1999. Alas at the time my SIS6326 wasn't supported in X, at least by default so there was little I could do. In those days internet access wasn't ubiquitous like today -- you could get online, you'd have to use minicom to dial your modem, then background it, then run pppd to get IP up and working, then use lynx to access the internet.
Or dual-boot back to windows, use a browser, find something else to try, then back to linux to try that.
Wasn't really until 6.0 that I started using linux properly, and wasn't until Debian Potato in August 2000 that it became my primary OS.
Ugh now I feel old, because my first Linux was a Red Hat on floppies that came tied to a RH 4.X book or something. It was so cool to install on an old Gateway 2000 I had come across, and have my own computer. Hard to believe that for as lost as I was in that shell on day one, I now spend so much time in one, sometimes from a computer that fits in my pocket.
I remember coming down an escalator around 23 years ago in an Amazon or Amazon-like bookstore seeing someone pick up a Redhat box in its distinctive colouring from behind the cashier desk and thinking "They're onto something."
I think I bought my first Intel based PC (a 486DX66 with 4MB RAM) in March 1993 - I was just shy of 30 myself. A core goal, which I achieved, was to dual-boot MS-DOS6 and Linux. While I started with SLS and Ydraggisil, I did end up giving Redhat a run. It's great to see it make it commercially.
Which honestly is going to bite them. The on-ramp from CentOS when small and RHEL once you’re big enough to need support is gone. It’s Ubuntu/Debian all the way down now.
What would you say are the main contributions of RedHat to the FOSS world, from its inception until this time (or 2019 if we want to split hairs)?
As a devotee Debian (now Devuan), I've never been fond of RedHat/RHEL/CentOS as distributions and they always felt clunky to me somehow. But I am vaguely aware that RedHat has been involved in kernel development and the development of various apps etc. What would you say are the most prominent and "redeeming" of those?
What would you say are the main contributions of RedHat to the FOSS world
For me, I would say their biggest contribution is their early work with getting Linux into the hands of 'normal' people. RedHat was the first to really get their CDs into bookstores, into computer books and into the hands of students and hobbyists. They sponsored and supported the writing of many of the books that first taught people Linux. At the same time they managed to appear as a 'serious' company and calm and convince managers that Linux on both company servers and work stations was a safe bet. I would also say they really pioneered the whole "FOSS as a business model" concept which many companies and projects later adopted.
The fact that their employees can work on a large part of the Linux ecosystem during work hours makes a huge difference too. I often come across people from redhat experimenting, like implementing screen sharing in wayland.
I've heard that they've been known to buy up stuff like Ansible for example, and then release source code. In ansible's case it was AWX, but I wish I had some better examples to mention. Maybe someone else can fill me in on some company red hat has purchased only to release their product source code to the public.
They have set a lot of standards. If Red Hat did something it often has become embraced. Basically, they have acted as a leader and I think they have done a good job as that.
Just one person amongs many, but employing Dave Airlie (airlied) has been a great boon for the Linux graphics stack. Among many other things, arlied started the radv driver (together with Bas Nieuwenhuizen) which has been become a significant part of Linux gaming on AMD hardware.
They are 2nd largest contributor to OpenJDK (Oracle is 1st obviously). They maintain the older releases - 8 and 11. It's mainly thanks to them that freely available maintenance releases of JDK 8 an 11 still exist.
There was a long stretch of time for which the only full-time developer working on Python (cPython) upstream was a Red Hat employee. The other core devs were either working in their free time or with their employers sponsoring only a few hours a week.
they're one of the largest contributors to the kernel, Gnome is largely funded and developed by Red Hat I think, they sponsor Fedora. They probably employ a significant chunk of people who work on the linux ecosystem.
[+] [-] Thev00d00|3 years ago|reply
Enthusiast #1: "Well, they developed and continue to support Red Hat Enterprise Linux, one of the most popular enterprise Linux distributions."
Leader: "Oh, well obviously we need that. That's true."
Enthusiast #2: "And don't forget about the Fedora Project! It's a community-driven distribution that helps test out new technologies before they make their way into RHEL."
Leader: "Oh, right, the Fedora Project. Yes, yes, we should be grateful for that."
Enthusiast #3: "Plus, they've made significant contributions to the development of the Linux kernel, especially when it comes to virtualization, security, and performance."
Leader: "Ah, yes, the kernel. You're absolutely right, that's a big one."
Enthusiast #4: "And what about all the open-source software projects they've developed and supported, like the GNOME, JBoss and Ansible?"
Leader: "Well, obviously we couldn't get by without those."
Enthusiast #5: "And let's not forget about their collaboration with other companies and organizations to advance open-source initiatives, like OpenStack and Kubernetes."
Leader: "Yes, yes, very impressive. But apart from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Fedora Project, contributions to the Linux kernel, open-source software projects, and collaboration with other organizations, what have Red Hat ever done for us?"
[+] [-] op00to|3 years ago|reply
Enthusiast #6: "Uhhh ..... about that."
Leader: "Oh, not good huh? Well, certainly Red Hat Storage is a great take-out for our expensive proprietary storage units!"
Enthusiast #7: not present because the whole BU was moved to IBM
[+] [-] znpy|3 years ago|reply
It provided a solid and serious corporate backing to that idea, providing not only software implementation and bug fixes, but also (and maybe more importantly) guidance, training, consulting.
Basically bridging the tech world with the corporate world.
All this in a time where the computing industry was divided among Microsoft and proprietary unix vendors.
Anybody not acknowledging these points would be dishonest at best.
[+] [-] Scubabear68|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sverhagen|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] midoridensha|3 years ago|reply
As for the popularity of RHEL, how much of that is because the US government is probably their biggest customer, and basically mandates its use for any application needing Linux? That's not a grassroots type of popularity.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] hulitu|3 years ago|reply
systemd, pulseaudio, freedesktop have bought much pain in the way of open standards and interoperability.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] quickthrower2|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CraigJPerry|3 years ago|reply
It might have all changed by now, I did my RHCE exam on RHEL5.5 so we’re talking many moons ago before switching careers to development.
[+] [-] jasoneckert|3 years ago|reply
There was a written portion followed by a practical portion in a lab where you had to configure services/features, followed by a break where they would mess small things up that you had to troubleshoot and fix.
I had a feeling they were going to break things, so I made sure I installed tripwire on each machine so I knew exactly what files they touched. I was done that portion in under 15 minutes. When I came out, the proctor said "Did you give up?" to which I replied "Nope - got 'em all I believe."
I think they removed tripwire from the available binaries after that :-)
[+] [-] eminent101|3 years ago|reply
At the risk of sounding like a caveman I have to admit that I haven't sat a single exam in my professional life. Am I losing out on something? What benefits have these exams brought to you that could not have been happened without them? Seriously considering if I should start signing up for them. And if I want to sign up for them, where do I start?
[+] [-] jyscao|3 years ago|reply
I attempted that exam right before it was to disappear permanently, on RHEL 7.4, but did not pass unfortunately.
[+] [-] teddyh|3 years ago|reply
But that’s only if you count the starting year as 1993; Red Hat the actual company seems to have been started in 1995, from what I read. In that case, they would have been 28 years old today.
[+] [-] brozaman|3 years ago|reply
As a former Red Hat employee this was painful to read. IBM is doing a Sun Microsystems to it, Red Hat used to be such a great company.
[+] [-] samueloph|3 years ago|reply
The distro was not created before 1994 either, so looks like they're counting the moment the founders got together as the creation date (before the distro, before the company) ?!
[+] [-] nemetroid|3 years ago|reply
> Red Hat was incorporated on March 26, 1993, by its founders Bob Young and Marc Ewing
[+] [-] nspattak|3 years ago|reply
They came together with the `SAMS RedHat Linux 7.0 Unleased` book I bought as I did not want to go through the same pain I went with my 33600 pstn downloading slackware 7's cd#1 in 14 days.
Cheers RedHat :)
[+] [-] iso1631|3 years ago|reply
Or dual-boot back to windows, use a browser, find something else to try, then back to linux to try that.
Wasn't really until 6.0 that I started using linux properly, and wasn't until Debian Potato in August 2000 that it became my primary OS.
[+] [-] eddieroger|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zhte415|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zubairq|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kar1181|3 years ago|reply
Redhat 4.2 Biltmore represent!
[+] [-] martyvis|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] petr25102018|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _chu1|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hn_throwaway_69|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Spivak|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arjvik|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] froh|3 years ago|reply
https://www.suse.com/de-de/30years/
[+] [-] einpoklum|3 years ago|reply
As a devotee Debian (now Devuan), I've never been fond of RedHat/RHEL/CentOS as distributions and they always felt clunky to me somehow. But I am vaguely aware that RedHat has been involved in kernel development and the development of various apps etc. What would you say are the most prominent and "redeeming" of those?
[+] [-] dagw|3 years ago|reply
For me, I would say their biggest contribution is their early work with getting Linux into the hands of 'normal' people. RedHat was the first to really get their CDs into bookstores, into computer books and into the hands of students and hobbyists. They sponsored and supported the writing of many of the books that first taught people Linux. At the same time they managed to appear as a 'serious' company and calm and convince managers that Linux on both company servers and work stations was a safe bet. I would also say they really pioneered the whole "FOSS as a business model" concept which many companies and projects later adopted.
[+] [-] INTPenis|3 years ago|reply
The fact that their employees can work on a large part of the Linux ecosystem during work hours makes a huge difference too. I often come across people from redhat experimenting, like implementing screen sharing in wayland.
I've heard that they've been known to buy up stuff like Ansible for example, and then release source code. In ansible's case it was AWX, but I wish I had some better examples to mention. Maybe someone else can fill me in on some company red hat has purchased only to release their product source code to the public.
[+] [-] mongol|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] account42|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frant-hartm|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dralley|3 years ago|reply
https://discuss.python.org/t/official-list-of-core-developer...
I believe Microsoft has been sponsoring a lot of work for the past year or so, so I doubt that is still the case.
Red Hat has been probably the biggest contributor to GCC for a very long time and contributes to LLVM/clang as well.
Beyond the kernel - glibc has a lot of RH maintenance work, Grub2, wayland, Xorg, Gnome, Gtk, pipewire, systemd. etc.
[+] [-] Barrin92|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dalewyn|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yrro|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] boomboomsubban|3 years ago|reply
Less sarcastically, systemd is a major part of most distros. It has it's haters, but it's one of the most impressive additions to FOSS from Red Hat.