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If it encourages those companies to invest in linux in a similar way as Red Had does, I'm all for it.

And really, this is a very stupid definition of "obfuscate". This article is a non-article.

I've always felt that CentOS was in rather poor taste, even if it adheres to the spirit of the GPL. If you're really getting value out of Red Hat's enhancements to the system, then compensate them for their work.

Clearly you mean oracle here. Being an ex RH-er I can tell you RH sees great value in centos. It keeps small shops on the RH reserve even if they don't pay for a support contract - yet. Oracle has recently tried to position itself as an "enhanced" rhel especially wrt the kernel and this seems like an attempt by RH to make things a bit harder for them. I don't agree with the move though - you don't want to follow oracle down such slippery slopes...

What value does RH see in CentOS? I know quite a few admins using CentOS because it essentially gives them the benefits of RHEL without having to pay license fees. None of them have any intention of ever paying for a RHEL license.

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