When RH bought CentOS, it was clear they would kill it eventually, the question was when. Well, it looks like it's happening just now. Time for a CentOS replacement.
CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
31–40 of 642 posts
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#32So CentOS is no longer relevant for production use. I wonder who stands to benefit. I really don't see it driving more sales to RHEL like the execs probably predict.
> If you are using CentOS Linux 8 in a production environment, and are concerned that CentOS Stream will not meet your needs, we encourage you to contact Red Hat about options. ...sounds like what they expect > it removes confusion around what “CentOS” means in the Linux distribution ecosystem This justification for the change seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't yet exist but probably will soon!
Agreed. I never thought there was any confusion about what CentOS meant. This feels like B.S.
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#33So CentOS is no longer relevant for production use. I wonder who stands to benefit. I really don't see it driving more sales to RHEL like the execs probably predict.
RedHat will probably get a one time boost in RHEL sales at the expense that the void created by the CentOS project will be filled by some CentOS-fork they have no control over.
Maybe they have some grand scheme I'm not seeing but it feels short sighted.
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#34Having a more "front runner" distro for RHEL (RedHat Enterprise) is great for RedHat. Since bugs will probably be caught in CentOS and don't end up in RHEL. This front runner role was actually intended for Fedora however Fedora contains way too much experimental changes for anyone to seriously try to run it on servers. I don't want to sound too "tin-foil headed" but I guess now that RedHat has hired the main CentOS d…
> Having a more "front runner" distro for RHEL (RedHat Enterprise) is great for RedHat. Since bugs will probably be caught in CentOS and don't end up in RHEL. I thought that Fedora was already serving this role
Not really. RHEL / CentOS is basically a hardened snapshot of Fedora taken every few years, with a few bespoke changes on top. So in that sense you could argue that Fedora is a front-runner for "the next RHEL" but at any point in time it is too far ahead of the current RHEL to be a useful testbed in any respect for those users. Although I guess you could argue that it helps knock down bugs in packages like GNOME that do get updated regularly in RHEL.
CentOS Stream is basically "the next x.y release of RHEL". Some updates, like GNOME updates and new hardware enablement, will be present in CentOS Stream a few months before they are released to RHEL and CentOS as part of a new x.y-release.
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#35Having been a Debian/Ubuntu person for a long time, and being somewhat dissatisfied with that ecosystem, I recently started evaluating CentOS for my use cases instead. I want something with a non-rolling update model, so I don't have to deal with my environment changing out from under me. CentOS 8 had been mostly working well for me, barring a few missing packages that were easy to port over myself, and I was really…
I don't know what your use case is, but one of the flavors of BSD might be an option for you.
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you are using CentOS Linux 8 in a production environment, and are concerned that CentOS Stream will not meet your needs, we encourage you to contact Red Hat about options. ...sounds like what they expect > it removes confusion around what “CentOS” means in the Linux distribution ecosystem This justification for the change seems like a solution to a problem that doesn't yet exist but probably will soon!
Agreed. I never thought there was any confusion about what CentOS meant. This feels like B.S.
To me it was literally the most straightforward Linux distro: RHEL without the license & trademarked material
I've been leaning on Debian-based distros for my own servers for a while now, but I still use CentOS in the lab. Hopefully RedHat provides an easy way to legally develop on RHEL without messing with a license.
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#37TL;DR: CentOS Linux 8.x will end in 2021, CentOS Stream 8 will be RHEL 8.x plus whatever updates are in the pipeline for it. CentOS 7.x will remain as today until RHEL 7.x reaches EOL.
I'm very pessimistic on what this means for the RHEL ecosystem as a whole...
If I understand correctly, CentOS Stream 8 should be relatively stable just after a RHEL 8.x release, because the pipeline will contain just minor updates. But as the next "x+1" release approaches, the pipeline will contain whatever is being tested for inclusion in it. This makes CentOS Stream unsuitable for the vast majority of people that currently use CentOS in production (i.e. the people that choose CentOS over something else like Debian Stable or Ubuntu LTS).
One can argue that these people can go buy RHEL licenses, but they most likely don't do that already because they see support as the value added by RHEL-proper and they can support themselves just fine. Many will also have RHEL instances along CentOS on systems that need vendor support, but pushing them to license everything may also push them into another direction altogether. Suddenly, standardizing on Ubuntu LTS (with paid support for a subset of instances) starts to make sense.
I think Red Hat (or maybe IBM) is vastly underestimating the value of CentOS in keeping the whole RHEL ecosystem competitive. They may be setting themselves up to be another SUSE.
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People who use CentOS want a boring Linux distro like RHEL. They just don't want to pay for RHEL subscriptions. There's a lot of people using CentOS indirectly, through CloudLinux. Whatever happens there, a lot of people will be affected.
And Scientific Linux, and Amazon Linux, etc.
SL never released version 8 (they switched to CentOS8). Amazon (correct me if I'm wrong) does not release installer ISOs. AFAIK, closest to a plain free RHEL8 clone is Oracle Linux.
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#39I m torn about this move. My gut reaction was that this was a bean-counter move. Thinking more about it the key issues I see with this move are:
- CENTOS fills a need, that many users have and superficially it looks like Red Hat (IBM) is now abandoning addressing it. On the other hand Red Hat does offer RHEL for free (gratis) [0] and that should fill the needs of CENTOS users (right?). However it would have been much better if that option was mentioned in the announcement.
- I thought Fedora was upstream of RHEL. However after thinking more about it I realised that RHEL has a significant delta over Fedora. I 'm guessing CENTOS stream will be partway between Fedora and RHEL. It makes sense from Red Hats open development approach to have the delta between Fedora and RHEL happen in the open. Done right that should strengthen RHEL.
- Why the rush to drop support for CENTOS 8? I m sure some people are using it in production and they are unlikely to to want to move to this new CENTOS stream. It's a new OS distribution with a philosophy different to the one that was right for them!
Overall I 'd prefer if the new thing was called RHEL stream and provided for free (gratis) as CENTOS stream is. Also making more explicit the RHEL availability for free instead of having competing brands would be good. Now that there are competing vendors (Amazon Linux, Oracle Linux) trying to entice users it'd be better to strengthen RHEL brand rather than dilute it with multiple offerings. Unless RedHat/IBM plans to pull the plug on option [0].
[0]: https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2016/03/31/no-cost-rhel-d...
Re: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
#40>> CentOS Stream now sits between the Fedora Project’s operating system innovation and RHEL’s production stability
So if we compare to Debian, this means:
Fedora Debian unstable (Sid)
CentOS Stream Debian testing (currently Bullseye)
RHEL Debian stable (currently Buster)
quote source: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/centos-stream-building-innova... (linked from the article)