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January 16, 2009

If you need to have new features and new operating system capabilities out of your Red Hat Enterprise server, or if you need to have some bug fixes or security patches done, this article is meant to help you achieve just that.

The overall process for doing so is very straightforward, but could be problematic for people with a background in traditional software user interfaces.

To summarize, this simple process can be resumed to:

Get the new code accepted upstream

Get it included in Fedora

Get it included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Although this article focuses on the Linux kernel, the steps apply to all Red Hat Enterprise Linux components and packages as well. Up to a certain degree, it can also be similar as well for other Linux distributions.

The key element in the whole process is that, to a degree, Red Hat Enterprise's operating system tracks upstream behavior in Linux. This means that Red Hat works closely with the open source community. Any new features must first be accepted upstream before they’re added to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It's as simple as that.

Overall, there are numerous benefits to this single approach. The biggest is that it keeps the operating system and its users closely aligned with Linux as it evolves over time. There are no dead-end branches, incompatible features, or Red Hat-specific changes that must be maintained either.

On any given day, new features added to Linux and key packages are easily integrated as well. It also means that new developments can and must be accepted by the open source and Linux community before its final integration.

Overall, there are also a number of other challenges to the open source model. Some of these are outright misconceptions in themselves, while others have a bit of truth to them.

Of course, with open source development, there are many ways to add a new capability to any Linux distro:

The original author of the package can add it

The Linux distributor -such as Red Hat- can add it as well

You can customize your installation by adding it yourself

You can contract with or persuade someone to add it for you

Perhaps most importantly, anyone can add it

As many of you already probably know, with open source, it isn’t always a question of who can add or enhance a feature or capability. Instead, it usually is a question of how widely that feature will be adopted and when. This changes the dynamics of adding new features from one of focusing solely on writing the Linux code that implements the feature to one of addressing creation, integration, acceptance and overall adoption in the open source community.

Traditionally, with proprietary software, only the owner of the software can add new features and capabilities. This makes the question of new functions quite straightforward. There is one source for new features, and they either agree to or reject a request for a new feature.

If they don’t agree to add the requested function, there’s simply no recourse...

There is simply no single point of control with Linux. There is no one who can order a new feature to be accepted. Red Hat simply isn't in a position to demand that others accept new developments by Red Hat. By virtue of being a recognized leader, we have considerable influence, but we must work within the Linux community structure as well.

This open source community includes not just programmers, but interface designers, testers, documentation writers, project managers, support people, and, last but not least, marketing people in the field.

Anybody can make any changes they want to their own copy of the Linux code. But if they want broad use and good support of some new features or bugfixes, they need to go through an acceptance process where other groups are also persuaded to distribute and support the new code.

So what IS Red Hat’s involvement in all of this you may ask?

As an entity, Red Hat is both a developer, a contributor and a system integrator all at once. We consciously chose to do targeted development and to build on the work of thousands of other participants in the open source and Linux community.

In essence, we want to be a part of this great community, rather than going on our own. In other cases we simply look to the people with a vested interest in a new feature. For example, a new Linux driver for a new piece of hardware.

In other words, Red Hat is helping to develop needed open source software and push it upstream so that it gets accepted and that it enjoys broad distribution in the whole community.

Source: Red Hat Linux.

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