Red Hat, the leading American distributor of Linux, is changing the way its distributions are developed the company is expected to announce Monday. Red Hat has also decided to abandon the shrinkwrap box retail channel, company representatives said late Saturday, though there is some doubt that this will be part of Monday"s announcement.
The company"s next major release, codenamed "Cambridge," will not be provided in boxed, retail form, according to company communications with employees and developers, which have been made available to Linux and Main.
Additionally, Red Hat plans extensive changes in its development and distribution model. The changes will begin with development lists being made public, and will be followed by return of package maintanence to the developers themselves. Currently, packages are "handed over" to Red Hat developers, who then tune them for inclusion in a particular version. Under the new system, developers will maintain control of the packages.