[svlug] RedHat Linux end-of-life decisions

[Jeffrey Siegal]

Anthony Ettinger wrote:
> I'm not a GPL expert, but how come Redhat can get away
> with charging money for Enterprise Edition Linux?
> Don't they have to give it away for free under the
> GPL? (or at least offer it for free, even if it's
> buried away on some ftp server).

Two reasons:

First, it is a common misconception that you have to give away GPL code. 
  You don't.  You can charge for it, and you can give it to some people 
but refuse to give it to others.  You just can't prevent others from 
giving it away, and if you distribute binaries, you also must distribute 
source.

Second, if you look hard enough, you actually will find it downloadable, 
but most RHEL customers are using it specifically because they want at 
least some level of support, and for that you have to pay Red Hat.