I really wish that, when RHEL/CentOS branches from Fedora to make a new release, they would also keep and provide a snapshot of Fedora's repository at that time, just like what Ubuntu does when they sync with Debian Sid (i.e.: packages in 'main' and 'restricted' repos are supported, all other packages in the Debian archive are imported and made available in 'universe' and 'multiverse' repository for your convenience).
That would work a long way to make CentOS a viable Linux distribution for everyday use. In my experience, EPEL isn't enough and rebuilding packages seems like a wasted effort since they were there when they branched off to prep a new release.
Add a somewhat predictable release schedule on top of that (again, in my opinion Ubuntu hit the sweet spot with 24 months here) and that would be the icing on the cake. Heck, RHEL 6 was first released in 2010 and there's still Python 2.6 on that!
I know that I could shut up and use Ubuntu (I do), it's just that I like RedHat way more than Canonical but they don't make it easy for me to use and love their products (speaking as a former Fedora user and contributor).
> I really wish that, when RHEL/CentOS branches from Fedora to make a new release, they would also keep a snapshot of Fedora's repository at that time
It isn't always so easy. I don't know what RHEL7 is like, but for 6 and 5 there wasn't a complete correlation between a Fedora release and a RHEL release. For example, 6 is mostly based on Fedora 12, except for a bunch of backports from 13 and a few from 14.
Then who provides security and bug fixes for that snapshot for the ten years during which a RHEL version is supported? EPEL is basically what you're asking for, but limited to packages where someone is willing to make that commitment.
"RHEL 6 was first released in 2010 and there's still Python 2.6 on that"
Or Python 2.7 or 3.3 can be installed via Software Collections. These have a predictable release cycle- a new version is released every 18 months, and each version is supported for three years.
That would work a long way to make CentOS a viable Linux distribution for everyday use. In my experience, EPEL isn't enough and rebuilding packages seems like a wasted effort since they were there when they branched off to prep a new release.
Add a somewhat predictable release schedule on top of that (again, in my opinion Ubuntu hit the sweet spot with 24 months here) and that would be the icing on the cake. Heck, RHEL 6 was first released in 2010 and there's still Python 2.6 on that!
I know that I could shut up and use Ubuntu (I do), it's just that I like RedHat way more than Canonical but they don't make it easy for me to use and love their products (speaking as a former Fedora user and contributor).