RHEL 8 Beta has been released and my take on this is presented in this blog post --> https://aajkyakaroon.blogspot.com/2018/11/rhel-8-beta-half-baked-release.html
Please remember -> This blog post is just my speculation.
Some of the technologies that RedHat wants to include in RHEL 8 are (from my understanding):
Please remember -> This blog post is just my speculation.
Something is amiss with RHEL 8. RedHat is chasing perfection or may be the current technology stack that RedHat wants is just not ready yet.
Some of the technologies that RedHat wants to include in RHEL 8 are (from my understanding):
- DNF 3
- GNOME 3.30 / 4
- GIMP 2.12 / 3.0
- Pipewire
- Silverblue
- Removal of Python 2 entirely
- Latest and greatest Wayland
DNF 3 development has just started in March 2018 according to the article on https://rpm-software-management.github.io/
What will DNF 3 give that DNF 2 does not give? Frankly, the answer is what we all want to hear. Better performance, consistency, save the world, and this is just the tip of the ice berg. And, we definitely want to whole ice berg, don't we?
Why (always) the next GNOME. Because, even in GNOME 3.26 the remote desktop capability is not enabled by default (on Wayland). This is the biggest bottleneck in releasing an enterprise OS.
When will GNOME have this capability. The answer is always the next one. And when the next one arrives, the answer will still be the next one. I hope they get it right before GNOME 4, otherwise, as many have stated, GNOME 3 series is just a pile of hot *sauce*.
Who gave these people a million dollars? Hmm, beats me, cough RedHat cough.
But, this capability is tied to the Pipewire back-end. Pipewire is an under development multimedia wizard that will handle all video and audio use cases. The first priority is for video since we already have PulseAudio/Jack/ALSA for audio. In the future, Pipewire will replace these audio middleware and be an all encompassing technology for all things multimedia. The current state of this project is written in this article -> https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2018/01/26/an-update-on-pipewire-the-multimedia-revolution-an-update/ (homepage for the article is https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/)
Oh, and the remote desktop capability in RHEL is also tied to Wayland. Because, RedHat has its heart set for using Wayland and no other.
Now, Wayland does not specifically state the way that can be used to enable remote desktop capability. Why? I do not know. May be Wayland can go different Ways. Wayland does not care which Way you take to get from point A to point B. Just pick a Way man.
So the good fellows at RedHat have chosen to dig holes, I mean Pipes, I mean, they chose to carve their own way and made Pipewire. So, at the moment, Pipewire is the only way that remote desktop capability can be achieved using Wayland in all Desktop Environments. Even the folks at KDE are using Pipewire to implement remote desktop.
The maturity of Wayland and Pipewire is the main bottleneck in implementing foolproof remote desktop capability.
RHEL 8 is also targeting a full transition to Python 3 and a full removal of Python 2. Well this cannot be done if they choose to include the current GIMP 2.10 version. The 2.10 version is still dependent on Python 2 and the GIMP devs have stated that it will require at least till the next version to be fully free of Python 2. What will be the next fully Python 3 GIMP version, I do not know, may be 2.12 or 3.0.
Silver bullet, oh I mean Silverblue will be the silver bullet that RedHat hopes will kill all the werewolves of package management. So, why all this work on DNF 3? Hmm, covering all bases I see. Flatpak all the way is the RedHat answer to Windows 95 in 2019/2020. So, we really are around 25 years behind the proprietary world. Who knew.
I always thought that GNU/Linux package management was the superior way of sharing open source software. Oh, now I get it, rpm and apt is not helping the proprietary software gain ground in GNU/Linux. So we just bend over and present our "better" side to them.
So, get ready for one off software products from the leading proprietary software makers that will not get updated or patched ever again. You know, the same as Windows 95 to Windows 10. We will become so privileged.
So, when will RHEL 8 be released. When the stars will align and the Sun and Moon are dancing. Well, obviously when all the technology is matured to a point where they can be included in a Fedora release. But, when will that happen. Well, Fedora 28 is gone and Fedora 29 is due sometime in the last months of this year (30 October 2018 - from https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/29/Schedule) I am more inclined to say Fedora 30 will be the one that may have all the technology stack included. What is the release date for Fedora 30? From this page -> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/30/Schedule the date is in May 2019
In conclusion, RHEL 8 alpha/beta will arrive after Fedora 30, may be somewhere in 2019 and we may get to see the Sun, I mean RHEL 8, may be in 2019, if we are lucky, or most likely in 2020.
What will DNF 3 give that DNF 2 does not give? Frankly, the answer is what we all want to hear. Better performance, consistency, save the world, and this is just the tip of the ice berg. And, we definitely want to whole ice berg, don't we?
Why (always) the next GNOME. Because, even in GNOME 3.26 the remote desktop capability is not enabled by default (on Wayland). This is the biggest bottleneck in releasing an enterprise OS.
When will GNOME have this capability. The answer is always the next one. And when the next one arrives, the answer will still be the next one. I hope they get it right before GNOME 4, otherwise, as many have stated, GNOME 3 series is just a pile of hot *sauce*.
Who gave these people a million dollars? Hmm, beats me, cough RedHat cough.
But, this capability is tied to the Pipewire back-end. Pipewire is an under development multimedia wizard that will handle all video and audio use cases. The first priority is for video since we already have PulseAudio/Jack/ALSA for audio. In the future, Pipewire will replace these audio middleware and be an all encompassing technology for all things multimedia. The current state of this project is written in this article -> https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2018/01/26/an-update-on-pipewire-the-multimedia-revolution-an-update/ (homepage for the article is https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/)
Oh, and the remote desktop capability in RHEL is also tied to Wayland. Because, RedHat has its heart set for using Wayland and no other.
Now, Wayland does not specifically state the way that can be used to enable remote desktop capability. Why? I do not know. May be Wayland can go different Ways. Wayland does not care which Way you take to get from point A to point B. Just pick a Way man.
So the good fellows at RedHat have chosen to dig holes, I mean Pipes, I mean, they chose to carve their own way and made Pipewire. So, at the moment, Pipewire is the only way that remote desktop capability can be achieved using Wayland in all Desktop Environments. Even the folks at KDE are using Pipewire to implement remote desktop.
The maturity of Wayland and Pipewire is the main bottleneck in implementing foolproof remote desktop capability.
RHEL 8 is also targeting a full transition to Python 3 and a full removal of Python 2. Well this cannot be done if they choose to include the current GIMP 2.10 version. The 2.10 version is still dependent on Python 2 and the GIMP devs have stated that it will require at least till the next version to be fully free of Python 2. What will be the next fully Python 3 GIMP version, I do not know, may be 2.12 or 3.0.
Silver bullet, oh I mean Silverblue will be the silver bullet that RedHat hopes will kill all the werewolves of package management. So, why all this work on DNF 3? Hmm, covering all bases I see. Flatpak all the way is the RedHat answer to Windows 95 in 2019/2020. So, we really are around 25 years behind the proprietary world. Who knew.
I always thought that GNU/Linux package management was the superior way of sharing open source software. Oh, now I get it, rpm and apt is not helping the proprietary software gain ground in GNU/Linux. So we just bend over and present our "better" side to them.
So, get ready for one off software products from the leading proprietary software makers that will not get updated or patched ever again. You know, the same as Windows 95 to Windows 10. We will become so privileged.
So, when will RHEL 8 be released. When the stars will align and the Sun and Moon are dancing. Well, obviously when all the technology is matured to a point where they can be included in a Fedora release. But, when will that happen. Well, Fedora 28 is gone and Fedora 29 is due sometime in the last months of this year (30 October 2018 - from https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/29/Schedule) I am more inclined to say Fedora 30 will be the one that may have all the technology stack included. What is the release date for Fedora 30? From this page -> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/30/Schedule the date is in May 2019
In conclusion, RHEL 8 alpha/beta will arrive after Fedora 30, may be somewhere in 2019 and we may get to see the Sun, I mean RHEL 8, may be in 2019, if we are lucky, or most likely in 2020.
