I’m not sure how you define “close relationship” as CIQ is a principal sponsor, nothing more than that. Unless you want to count the few people on my team that are at CIQ, I wouldn’t consider that a close relationship as they were on my team before being hired there.
This is 99% true while the 1% is based on detail-less statements given to myself and other team leads of the Rocky Linux project. Meaning, something was happening, but we had no idea what that “something” was.
We were told “partnerships are being built” and “conversations are happening” without being given any details, which set off red flags and alarm bells to me right away. I was very adamant that unless we’re involved, the RESF nor the Rocky Linux project cannot be properly represented, regardless of what it is. Majority of the other leads in the project were in agreement with my stance on the matter that it comes down to “we”, not “you”. No votes took place, no consent was requested, no details were given. As a result: The RESF cannot be involved nor represented.[1][2]
Collectively, we have not been pleased about how this has been happening for the past couple years. This most recent thing is what made us speak much louder than before.
My take is that it remains to be seen what this is actually going to do or provide to the greater Enterprise Linux community and derivative projects. I personally have a hard time taking any of it seriously for the time being and the benefits need to be proven in the coming months.
footnotes
[1] It is simply not possible for conversations to occur nor partnerships to be created when not even the boards of the RESF and projects are made aware nor requested to be part of the representation and building of a relationship with others. Closed door conversations or “strategic maneuvering” is never considered a positive from my point of view.
[2] This comes from the misrepresentation of the RESF and our project by key individuals. Time and time again, we have been represented poorly without consent nor discussion with project leads nor board members. You don’t create optimism nor good will among a community nor those who work on Rocky Linux when there are private conversations and then the foundation, the project, and your for-profit company are all being represented at the same time when they shouldn’t.
The result of the incorrect representation is that it has produced many rumors and false information about our foundation and project all over, the primary one being that CIQ and the RESF/Rocky Linux project are the same entities. CIQ does not build Rocky Linux. A recent falsehood that recently came up is that we have a “support business unit” which I found kind of funny. There are many more I could cover here. But the point is that the false information has continued to persist, regardless of what myself (and others in the project) have tried to say.