It’s not like RHEL

The parallels between this and RHEL (including RHEL derivatives like Oracle Linux) are maybe longer than you think.

it has nothing to do with licensing or even packaging/distribution.

Not sure what you mean. I don’t think I implied that that’s the point of certification.

But:

• Isn’t Ferrocene going to be a downstream* certified compiler?
• Won’t that compiler need a software license?
• Won’t that compiler be packaged and distributed (a cloud-only offering would presumably be off the table, at least for “serious clients”)?

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I think all of this is very much relevant info to know.

* “downstream” is the fifth word in the article/ad.

It’s also not something that Ferrocene needs to “sell”

Something is being sold by Ferrous Systems. I don’t think that’s a point of dispute by anyone!

Now, what that something exactly looks like will depend, in part, on the answers to the questions above, no?

in the sense of convincing users to migrate to it from rustc

I didn’t argue that. I don’t think anyone argued that.

In case you didn’t realize, the quintessential Arch user wouldn’t be the target of a RHEL sales pitch either 😉 .

And now any remnants of a joke are ruined by all the explaining.