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Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

rockylinux.org

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Re: Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

#21

Post by orthoxerox »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #3

Not being familiar with CentOS or "Enterprise Linux", I wish their website explained a bit more about what Rocky Linux is in terms of features or functionality. The about page mainly just talks about the legacy of the name. The FAQ's first question isn't, "What is Rocky Linux", or "Who is Rocky Linux for?" Piecing it together based on a single sentence I stumbled on then did some Google searching, it sounds like Rock…

> The about page mainly just talks about the legacy of the name.

"On December 8, 2020, Red Hat announced that they would discontinue development of CentOS, which has been a production-ready downstream version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, in favor of a newer upstream development variant of that operating system known as "CentOS Stream". In response, original founder of CentOS, Gregory Kurtzer, announced via a comment on the CentOS website that he would again start a project to achieve the original goals of CentOS."

I think the very first paragraph on the about page just about sums it up. It's a production-ready downstream version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Re: Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

#22

Post by somerandomqaguy »

sgtnoodle wrote: post #19
alex_sf wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rocky and CentOS are both based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). CentOS used to be a free and open source downstream version of RHEL. Keeping the history short: Red Hat effectively acquired CentOS and discontinued it as a downstream version of RHEL. They turned it into 'CentOS Stream', which is, more or less, a continuously delivered upstream version of RHEL. This isn't acceptable for a large number of the CentOS…

Huh, that's interesting. Isn't Fedora the upstream version of Red Hat already? Or is the main distinction that CentOS Stream is rolling release? I'm pretty much on the complete opposite end of the Linux ecosystem, working primarily on embedded systems.

Fedora's more playground / cutting edge technology demonstrator for Redhat developers. Anything showing up in Fedora won't be included in RHEL for several years, assuming everything goes well.

CENTOS Stream slots in between Fedora and RHEL, keeping a bit ahead of the RHEL stable release.

Re: Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

#23

Post by indigodaddy »

PAPPPmAc wrote: post #16
sgtnoodle wrote: post #3

Not being familiar with CentOS or "Enterprise Linux", I wish their website explained a bit more about what Rocky Linux is in terms of features or functionality. The about page mainly just talks about the legacy of the name. The FAQ's first question isn't, "What is Rocky Linux", or "Who is Rocky Linux for?" Piecing it together based on a single sentence I stumbled on then did some Google searching, it sounds like Rock…

CentOS was, as you say, a community developed drop-in replacement for RedHat RHEL that subsumed a number of earlier RPM-based distributions in the early-mid 2000s. It was _widely_ used: in the 2010s the CentOS install base was on the same scale as Debian. The CentOS governance structure and trademarks were effectively absorbed by RedHat, Inc in 2014. In 2020 RedHat unilaterally "refocused" CentOS from being essential…

I don’t have any numbers to back me up— just a hunch and from my own experiences in the industry, I would think that in the 2010’s the install base of Debian would have paled in comparison to CentOS (this would be on the interwebs of course). I don’t know that you could say that they were on the same scale, with my suspicion that CentOS was way more prevalent.

I’d be interested in stats on that from 2010s, and now. I’d even suspect that even today, EL as a whole might outnumber Debian, but perhaps not Ubuntu or Debian/Ubuntu combined (even notwithstanding the rise of containers).

Re: Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

#26

Post by PAPPPmAc »

indigodaddy wrote: post #23
PAPPPmAc wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CentOS was, as you say, a community developed drop-in replacement for RedHat RHEL that subsumed a number of earlier RPM-based distributions in the early-mid 2000s. It was _widely_ used: in the 2010s the CentOS install base was on the same scale as Debian. The CentOS governance structure and trademarks were effectively absorbed by RedHat, Inc in 2014. In 2020 RedHat unilaterally "refocused" CentOS from being essential…

I don’t have any numbers to back me up— just a hunch and from my own experiences in the industry, I would think that in the 2010’s the install base of Debian would have paled in comparison to CentOS (this would be on the interwebs of course). I don’t know that you could say that they were on the same scale, with my suspicion that CentOS was way more prevalent. I’d be interested in stats on that from 2010s, and now. I…

I was going by this low hanging chart from the server market: https://w3techs.com/blog/entry/debian_is_now_the_most_popula... which seems credible with my memories from industry buddies at the time.

Though, as you allude, I bet a lot of CentOS installations aren't as visible, given its prevalence in things like compute clusters, dev systems, and that sort of thing.

(I have no horse in the race, my personal day-to-day use machines are mostly Arch boxes, and I regularly work on both Debian and CentOS-transitioning-to-Rocky machines.)

Re: Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

#27

Post by derekp7 »

bombcar wrote: post #9
sgtnoodle wrote: post #3

Not being familiar with CentOS or "Enterprise Linux", I wish their website explained a bit more about what Rocky Linux is in terms of features or functionality. The about page mainly just talks about the legacy of the name. The FAQ's first question isn't, "What is Rocky Linux", or "Who is Rocky Linux for?" Piecing it together based on a single sentence I stumbled on then did some Google searching, it sounds like Rock…

CentOS was nice for two reasons: 1. Big "enterprise" software would run on it because it was basically RedHat. 2. It had an exceptionally long support cycle, so you could setup a machine and ignore it for ten years.

To clarify your second point -- you can maintain security fixes for 10 years without having to worry about random changes that may break your installed apps and workflows.

Re: Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

#28

Post by [deleted] »

martinpw wrote: post #6
sgtnoodle wrote: post #3

Not being familiar with CentOS or "Enterprise Linux", I wish their website explained a bit more about what Rocky Linux is in terms of features or functionality. The about page mainly just talks about the legacy of the name. The FAQ's first question isn't, "What is Rocky Linux", or "Who is Rocky Linux for?" Piecing it together based on a single sentence I stumbled on then did some Google searching, it sounds like Rock…

Well you could argue the name needs some explanation. The first time I heard it my mind immediately jumped to the dictionary definition of the word rocky - "difficult and full of obstacles or problems."

[deleted]

Re: Rocky Linux 8.8 Available Now

#29

Post by Avshalom »

gigatexal wrote: post #24

Which is the defacto one to use? alma Linux or Rocky?

Currently I think Alma, all the companies (and Fermilab (which used to maintain another RHEL clone)) seem to have gone with Alma.

That said, in theory, it's irrelevant: bug-for-bug compatibility and all that.

That That said if I was going to install one on a laptop I'd choose Rocky because it feels vaguely less commercial and I appreciate that.

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