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Comment by qqqqqq | Hacker News Reader

But, if I wanted a better alternative to CentOS, wouldn't I just go and use Red Hat? Why would I lock myself into a company that has this bad a track record?

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Because with Red Hat you have to pay for access to updates.

Agreed. And I think "lock-in" is an unfair characterization. It's not like you can't switch back to CentOS or Scientific Linux.

How so? You guys are providing a script to switch from CentOS to OL, but I don't see a comparable script to switch back to CentOS.

Where is the script to easily switch back when Oracle decides to screw everyone over as many have already brought up?

druiid: If that happens, I will personally help you switch back any systems you switched over this way :) My email address is in my profile.

As for everyone else, yeah, a '--reverse' was somewhere in our set of desired features for the script, but ultimately this became about some combination of "Launch early, launch often" and "MVP", two topics I know we all love here :)

yeah, sure

I suspect that the development of the --reverse switch would significantly increase the credibility of your offer. CERN is around for the long haul and Princeton isn't about to disappear, so there will always be a backout vehicle for refusniks.

Can we get that in writing and approved by Oracles legal department? Or is this some kind of personal guarantee, if so can you please spell if out exactly. Thanks. Also is it for druiid only, or the community as a whole?

That offer is for druiid only :), but --reverse is in the works.

(And seriously, editing the script and hacking together a quick reverse is pretty easy, but I just want to make sure we take the time to get it right in all the annoying little edge cases that inevitably crop up.)

Perhaps I'll take you up on the offer. I actually am one of your hoped cases, where there's the possibility for moving to support at some point. Not the biggest fan of some Oracle decisions, but it's also difficult to justify paying for RH support and using it once every few years.

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