July 11, 2023

Oracle has condemned IBM’s decision to stop publicly releasing RHEL source code, accusing the company of trying to stifle competition in the Linux market.

In a blog post, Oracle said that IBM’s decision was “a clear attempt to eliminate competitors and consolidate market share.” The company also said that IBM’s claims that it needs to withhold source code in order to pay its engineers were “misleading.”

IBM discontinued the public release of RHEL source code as of June 21, sparking speculation about the motivations behind this change. IBM’s explanation, as outlined in a blog post, points to the financial burden of sustaining Red Hat’s extensive codebase. However, this rationale seems puzzling given Red Hat’s historical commitment to open source principles, including the release of RHEL source code before IBM’s acquisition in 2019.

“Red Hat chose to publicly release RHEL source for many years before IBM acquired the company,” Oracle said. “IBM’s decision to stop doing so is not about paying engineers. It’s about trying to control the Linux market.”

Oracle said that it will continue to make Oracle Linux binaries and source code freely available to all. The company also said that it is “committed to Linux freedom” and welcomes downstream distributions of Oracle Linux.

“IBM’s actions are not in the best interest of Linux developers or customers,” Oracle said. “We urge IBM to reconsider its decision and release RHEL source code to the community.”

The sources for this piece include an article in Oracle.