I see a lot of posts about Redhat for putting their code base behind a paywall. I’ve only been using Linux as my main desktop OS for a couple of years now. Someone recommended Fedora at the time, and I’ve been happy with it. I had previously tried PopOS, Mint, and Ubuntu, but none of them convinced me to switch from Windows full time until I tried again with Fedora.

How will what Redhat is doing affect Fedora for the home user? Should I start considering something else?

Edit: thanks for all of the responses! Sticking with fedora for now it is.

  • @winety
    2•1 year ago

    I don’t think the current Red Hat controversy will have much impact on Fedora. There are the three reasons why I think so:

    • While Fedora is not a fully independent distribution, the Fedora Council has both members from Red Hat and members from the community. It may be wishful thinking, but I believe that, if Red Hat tried something iffy with Fedora, the community (including people in leading positions) would protest.
    • Fedora is upstream from RHEL, so it doesn’t directly profit from RHEL source codes being fully open. Instead, it’s the other way around; Fedora’s sources are the basis of CentOS and then RHEL, so any bugs fixed in Fedora benefit RHEL.
    • Fedora is also Red Hat’s tool for influencing the Linux ecosystem at large. When they want other people start using some technology (Flatpak, PulseAudio etc.), Fedora is a good way of disseminating it.

    P.S. There might be some inaccuracies. I am just a user; I am neither a developer nor in any leadership role.

    P.P.S. Please excuse any spelling and grammar mistakes. English is not my first language.