Red Hat going closed source, and why that's the right move
I am a huge proponent of open source. I really believe that Open source and free software allow an incredible level of innovation. Open source allows everyone to contribute and secure a program. Even still, Red Hat (RHEL) going closed source is a good thing. Why?
The honest truth is... a product that is sold is considered of higher value. This is why Apple, and Microsoft are successful, people have an innate desire to pay for quality. In Red Hat's case it is the standard in the server space. Red Hat is not truly for hobbyists, its for real world production.
The Linux community is worried that this will reduce the transparency and trust of Red Hat, and that it will create a barrier for people who want to use or contribute to Red Hat without paying (jessevas, 2023). This is true, yet it will increase innovation, because now the community has to design ways to go around depending on Red Hat. Plus it will give a push to other distributions of Linux to be used or be developed for servers. The community being dependent on one sole version of Linux, stifles creativity.
Red Hat will continue to provide and incredible platform and increase its focus on its specific use case. As Mike McGrath (2023) explains in an official Red Hat post: "Simply rebuilding code, without adding value or changing it in any way, represents a real threat to open source companies everywhere. This [...] has the potential to revert open source back into a hobbyist- and hackers-only activity". None of us want Linux to be just a pile of discs, usb keys, or ISOs that are just passed around between a small amount of niche users. In order for Linux to progress, it needs grow, even if it hurts.
References
jessevas (2023) Spice works. Has anyone else heard anything about RHEL becoming closed source? Retrieved from: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2488635-has-anyone-else-heard-anything-about-rhel-becoming-closed-source
McGrath M. (2023) Red Hat. Red Hat’s commitment to open source: A response to the git.centos.org changes. Retrieved from: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hats-commitment-open-source-response-gitcentosorg-changes

















