From the movie: Casablanca
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir. ...
A person who was, I guess, looking to stir up something, was "shocked, shocked" in a CentOS mailing list to learn I have a direct commercial interest in the success of CentOS, and do not hide it, based on this post: one; and my reply
As a bit of 'inside baseball', behind the scenes, I have not had access to certain parts of back side CentOS facilities for a while, and formally floated my request for getting this access right cleaned up, after informal efforts were not advanced by the party needing to take the needed steps. I was met with this reply in my mail spool yesterday:
Subject: Giving Russ wider access to machines etc
I have 2 concerns when it comes to giving Russ wider machine level access to [those facilities]
1) He has a direct commercial interest in CentOS. ...
This is easy -- I co-founded this project long since, and have in no wise ever engaged in any act to damage it. The author proposes to exclude me as I have a 'direct commercial interest'. A slippery slope, not well thought through, and not a fight that makes ANY sense in an enterprise distribution. Form follows function
Either the GPL means what it says, and so also similar licenses such as BSD, or they do not. I commercialize Linux and other Open Source, and have for many years long before CentOS existed, and don't hide it
If some people don't like that they can say so, and I'll surface the discussions
In other news:
- water is wet
- CentOS still has no corporate existence to protect its members, as part of an unincorporated association, from having to individually defend suits such as Oracle's today
I am not going to hang around exposed, without a corporate form and protection, until people decide they want to move forward. It's been a year since the Lance letter and the time for 'all deliberate speed' is over
If it turns out that only one person calls the shots these days in CentOS and to my exclusion, so be it. I'll not be a servant to another, and I'll not be improperly excluded
