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Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

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Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#21

Post by citiguy »

joana035 wrote: post #17
tmoravec wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Debian offers around three years of support. Ubuntu LTS around five. Both pale in comparison with Red Hat and, by proxy, CentOS.

Right, but the price one pays are outdated packages. CentOS 8 was released few days ago with kernel 4.18, which not even LTS is, and is older than the current Debian stable kernel(!). If you need to install anything besides the base distro you need elrepo, epel, etc which I'm not sure can be counted as part of the support.

Agreed, the packages in Centos / RHEL are all super old. The RHEL license structure changes all the time and depending on which one you get it may or may not include the extended repos.

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#22

Post by GordonS »

murat124 wrote: post #5

What is the vision for Rocky Linux? A solid, stable, and transparent alternative for production environments, developed by the community for the community. Hence the name Rocky Linux, I suppose? Solid as a rock. Although I'll be inclined to think of it as series of movies. Perhaps even split wood before installing Rocky 5?

> Hence the name Rocky Linux, I suppose

Hmm, to me, "rock" has connotations of "solid", but that ending "y" changes the the connotations completely - "rocky" makes me think of uncertainty, risk and peril.

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#23

Post by dfdz »

tcldr wrote: post #18

Rocky makes me think ‘unstable’ and ‘uncertain’ which seems at odds with the stated vision of the distribution. Might make for a tough sell.

I got the same impression. Do you think it would be too late to change the name to "Rock Linux" or "Rock Solid Linux"?

Since branding is so important this really seems like something that should go through focus groups or crowd sources somehow? Maybe a poll on hacker news? Unfortunately, I really think changing the name would be critical to the success of the project. Imagine you are a technical lead and you have to convince your boss to switch from RHEL to Rocky Linux...

Edit: I know the name is in tribute to Rocky McGaugh, but I still think "Rock Solid Linux" "named in tribute to CentOs co-founder Rocky McGaugh" would make the project more successful

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#24

Post by kubanczyk »

AntiImperialist wrote: post #13

I doubt how successful this will turn out to be because of the following reasons: - The old CentOS had a brand value, which Rocky Linux has to earn back all over again. - The old Red Hat was nice to CentOS or at least wasn't particularly hostile. That does not mean IBM will be nice too. - It may be too short a notice for current CentOS users to wait for Rocky Linux to come through. They may already move away to other…

> So, it will end up with the same fate as CentOS.

Same fate as CentOS, let me think... Can I replace a few system packages to convert it to a binary-compatible, patchable, community-supported distro, just differently branded? Okay, count me in.

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#25

Post by mmrezaie »

dharmab wrote: post #11
mmrezaie wrote: post #3

I am really interested to know why should anyone go with this when Debian or Ubuntu LTS exist. The two later have not changed their policies in the last decade, and they have a clear path for upgrading. CentOS was always a clear choice for device drivers support, but I never understood the stability claims.

Debian's package policies can be challenging for rapidly updating packages: https://lwn.net/Articles/835599/

For packages like Kubernetes or big data packages one should not use anyone else's builds. I have been finding problems in Cray's modules and eventually we are using our own builds we can reproducibly support using Spack.

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#26

Post by LeoPanthera »

AntiImperialist wrote: post #13

I doubt how successful this will turn out to be because of the following reasons: - The old CentOS had a brand value, which Rocky Linux has to earn back all over again. - The old Red Hat was nice to CentOS or at least wasn't particularly hostile. That does not mean IBM will be nice too. - It may be too short a notice for current CentOS users to wait for Rocky Linux to come through. They may already move away to other…

CentOS had no "brand value" when it was new.

Red Hat was not nice to CentOS when it was new.

The "same fate" as CentOS would mean surviving for 16 years.

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#27

Post by albru123 »

AntiImperialist wrote: post #13

I doubt how successful this will turn out to be because of the following reasons: - The old CentOS had a brand value, which Rocky Linux has to earn back all over again. - The old Red Hat was nice to CentOS or at least wasn't particularly hostile. That does not mean IBM will be nice too. - It may be too short a notice for current CentOS users to wait for Rocky Linux to come through. They may already move away to other…

I don't see how it would be too short a notice for current CentOS users really. At least for majority of users running CentOS in their production systems and relying on a long-term support. It's not like they just go and trash their production setup the very moment its running distro lifespan is shortened. I'd expect the opposite actually, since you're looking for something well supported.

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#28

Post by mmrezaie »

tmoravec wrote: post #16
mmrezaie wrote: post #3

I am really interested to know why should anyone go with this when Debian or Ubuntu LTS exist. The two later have not changed their policies in the last decade, and they have a clear path for upgrading. CentOS was always a clear choice for device drivers support, but I never understood the stability claims.

Debian offers around three years of support. Ubuntu LTS around five. Both pale in comparison with Red Hat and, by proxy, CentOS.

Honestly that support is meaningless for some areas I know. In our Data Center we have hit problems with old packages and at the end you will end up with a lot of your own packages. In the end I find Debian to be a good base, and you build the rest by yourself. Even though I use Fedora for Desktop, I always have a feeling Debian is the server choice which I can extend further.

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#29

Post by dfdz »

GordonS wrote: post #22
murat124 wrote: post #5

What is the vision for Rocky Linux? A solid, stable, and transparent alternative for production environments, developed by the community for the community. Hence the name Rocky Linux, I suppose? Solid as a rock. Although I'll be inclined to think of it as series of movies. Perhaps even split wood before installing Rocky 5?

> Hence the name Rocky Linux, I suppose Hmm, to me, "rock" has connotations of "solid", but that ending "y" changes the the connotations completely - "rocky" makes me think of uncertainty, risk and peril.

I really think someone needs to convince them to change the name to something like "Rock Solid Linux". Is there anyway to try to make this happen?

Re: Rocky Linux: A CentOS replacement by the CentOS founder

#30

Post by joana035 »

deelowe wrote: post #15
Darmody wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Thinking back to early CentOS days... My cofounder was Rocky McGaugh. He is no longer with us, so as a H/T to him, who never got to see the success that CentOS came to be, I introduce to you...Rocky Linux" — Gregory Kurtzer, Founder

This project just oozes good-heartedness. I wish him all the best.

I wish all the best for Rocky Linux, it is Linux after all.

Is always good to have diversity and a community driven project.

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