An appeal on Lance Davis, the temporarily absent main administrator and co-founder of CentOS, has obviously worked -- the highest hurdles in the further course of the project seem to be taken.

Shortly after an open letter from CentOS project-members to Lance Davis, a "routine meeting" was held, with the missing administrator in attendance. "During the meeting a majority of issues were resolved immediately and a working agreement was reached with deadlines for remaining unresolved issues." One of the main problems for the project members was the control of the web presence and IRC channels. This now seems resolved: "The CentOS project is now in control of the CentOS.org and CentOS.info domains" says the project. Marketing rights for logos and graphics appear to have already been transferred.

How the project can protect itself from similar difficulties in the future is to be looked at in the next few weeks. Administration of donation money still seems to be unclear. James Byrne packs the worries of many members into his question on the discussion list: "What steps, if any, have been taken to establish the CentOS project as a separate legal entity distinct from any individual contributor? What protections are being put in place to prevent future misappropriations of donations and advertising revenue, even if it turns out that no such thing has as yet happened?" These issues, according to Karanbir Singh who was at the meeting, will also be addressed in the next weeks, and adds that donation and advertising options will for now remain turned off. Further developments can be followed on the project page.

An appeal on Lance Davis, the temporarily absent main administrator and co-founder of CentOS, has obviously worked -- the highest hurdles in the further course of the project seem to be taken.