Red Hat continued to expand programs for the free use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, covering the needs of users in traditional CentOS, which arose after the transformation of the CentOS project into CentOS Stream. In addition to the previously provided free builds for production deployments of up to 16 systems, a new option βRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for Open Source Infrastructureβ is offered, which allows free use of RHEL in the infrastructure of open source project development communities and organizations supporting open source software development.
Specifically, the new program covers organizations and projects involved in the development and hosting of software distributed under open licenses approved for inclusion in the Fedora Linux repositories. Free use of RHEL in such organizations is allowed in infrastructure elements such as assembly systems, continuous integration systems, mail and web servers. Program participants additionally have access to the Red Hat portal with documentation, knowledge base, forums and the Red Hat Insights analytics system. Formally, the support service does not cover RHEL for Open Source Infrastructure participants, but depending on the importance of the project, Red Hat does not exclude the possibility of providing free technical support.
The presented program is currently limited to organizations only and does not affect individual developers, current Red Hat partners and customers, government organizations, educational institutions and non-profit organizations wishing to use RHEL in areas not related to maintaining an infrastructure for open source software development. Access to participate in the RHEL for Open Source Infrastructure program is provided on the basis of applications sent by email "[email protected]" Individual developers can get the opportunity to install RHEL for free by using the existing Red Hat Developer program. In the future, it is planned to implement several more programs that cover the need for traditional CentOS, in particular, similar programs will appear for non-profit organizations not associated with open source software, and educational institutions.
Let us recall that the key difference between the CentOS Stream build is that the classic CentOS acted as a βdownstreamβ, i.e. was assembled from already formed stable releases of RHEL and was fully binary compatible with RHEL packages, and CentOS Stream is positioned as βupstreamβ for RHEL, i.e. it will test packages before inclusion in RHEL releases. Such a change will allow the community to participate in the development of RHEL, control upcoming changes and influence decisions made, but it does not suit those who simply need a stable working distribution with a long period of support.
Source: opennet.ru