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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

#31

Post by dimitrios1 »

dfdz wrote: post #23
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…

Given we are talking of branding, did you both completely miss the logo? To me it's clear the name is in reference to mountains, as in the Rocky Mountains.

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

#32

Post by einarfd »

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.

It's named in tribute after a guy called Rocky McGaugh. I don't think they want to change it.

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

#33

Post by unethical_ban »

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.

Arguably, no one should be running a server that long in 2020.

I would say a better reason is that while both are Linux distributions, they are distinct dialects and ecosystems. It isn't impossible to switch, but for institutions that have complex infrastructure built around the RHEL world, it is a lot of work to convert.

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

#34

Post by ravi-delia »

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.

Probably not, apparently it was named after Rocky McGaugh, who after helping to found CentOS has died. It's a pretty cool way to honor him.

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

#36

Post by CoolGuySteve »

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.

The patch delta for security fixes must get larger over time as these packages age further and further away from top of tree.

I always wonder how many major vulnerabilities are introduced into these super old distros due to backporting bugs.

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

#38

Post by houseofzeus »

albru123 wrote: post #27
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.

Agree, I'd imagine most of them are also still on 7, which the lifecycle didn't change for and goes to 2024 even if they just stay where they are.

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

#39

Post by sreevisakh »

dfdz wrote: post #29
GordonS wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

As others have pointed out, the name is a tribute to a late CentOS cofounder Rocky McGaugh. It would be sad if it had to be changed. We should perhaps emphasize the CentOS lineage in the name instead.

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

#40

Post by simonh »

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 first thought of Rocky Balboa, the plucky underdog. I'd not heard of Mr McGaugh before, but it seems a fitting tribute.
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