First Alan Cox, and now this? I think something fishy is going on...
I operate many CentOS, Ubuntu AND Red Hat servers. Seeing key developers drop from the Linux community (which is the way it sounds) and then to see the lead project manager of CentOS VANISH is absolutely terrifying.
Here was my SECOND thought. Should I just be using MS servers for everything?
THIRD thought, maybe Red Hat at the very least.
Stuff like this puts a huge scar on open source for the nervous folks like me. I want to rely on a huge company no more than I do an open source project run by random people around the world, but I just don't have much of a choice, and situations like these make me feel totally out of control, and when this happens, I have to consider paying more so I know the company that manages my OS will be around tomorrow.
I don't have a "what if a bus hits my OS" document, and I didn't think I needed one, but all of a sudden... I think that maybe I do.
Would you have been better off if you had used a proper professional Unix from, Sun or Dec or Compaq
>Should I just be using MS servers for everything?
As long as you don't mind switching to a new OS when their marketing dept decides it's time.
When other people, who actively participate in the project, quit - like Alan Cox did, most of them - if not all - responsibly manage the transition.
I once had this conversation via email with one of the slashdot guys. He was considering banning AnnoymousCoward back then, and asked if I could point to any worthy posts that might have been posted by a signed account, and I pointed him to a thread in which an AC who claimed to be ex-FBI had some pretty insightful and thoughtful comments on police corruption and warrantless searches and such. He acknowledged it was a good example but said it was the only one he had seen thus far.