CentOS 8 will die and be replaced by Stream

[jlehtone]

My question... Are they going to continue to "release" subversions? So will a CentOS 8.5 match RHEL 8.5? Or will CentOS become strictly one subversion that is a beta subversion for RHEL?

No.

It seems that the flow will be about:
1. There is RHEL 8.x
2. RHEL staff will create packages that could go to RHEL 8.(x+1)
3. RHEL staff release those packages to CentOS Stream (8)
4. RHEL staff tweaks packages
5. RHEL 8.(x+1) is released
The Stream might have packages that go to RHEL 8.(x+1) before 8.(x+1) is released, or the packages might differ.


As for doing magic ... the release delays that we have seen with CentOS (point) releases should indicate how deep magic does it take.
Gregory Kurtzer has announced the Rocky Linux project. Perhaps you should join his team of wizards?

[phil.e]

This is IBM's decision, right, since they bought Redhat? IBM always kills everything they put their finger on.

[ms217]

Judging this answer (Q3): https://centos.org/distro-faq/#q3-will- ... tcentosorg

The sources of RHEL will be still released. Since no RHEL version was specified I hope that this statement counts for all released and still maintained RHEL versions (including EL8) to date and hopefully also for future major RHEL releases. So anyone can rebuild RHEL 8 with the exception that the CentOS project will follow the announced Stream release by 2021.

So my understanding is, that if you want LTS support for 10 years just like before, CentOS 8 users will have to switch to Rocky Linux (if it takes off as a project), Oracle Enterprise Linux or other RHEL clones.

[kdpatil]

My take on this so far:

If you run CentOS 7 then sit things out until it goes EOL in 2024 and use the time between now and then to find a new distribution that does what you need.

If you run CentOS 8 then you have a little over a year to find a different distro and switch.

And no, I have no recommendations as the only distro I have run for years is CentOS and I am quite bitter about how Red Hat have gone about this.

#######################################

The doc says :

If you are a CentOS Linux user, don’t worry! There will be a CentOS distribution here in the future
Generally speaking we expect CentOS Stream to have fewer bugs and more runtime features as it moves forward in time but always giving direct indication of what is going into a RHEL release

#######################################

But what i see this as from what folks saying is : the CentOS 8 is more of "Beta" kind going forward by 2021 .. and hence not ideal from "production" ...


Is this correct ?

this will encourage folks to enroll to RHEL paid model ? which seems more stable to say ..

BTW there is self service offering from RHEL ie you use it, you get updates . but no support.. still you need to pay.

[desertcat]

My question... Are they going to continue to "release" subversions? So will a CentOS 8.5 match RHEL 8.5? Or will CentOS become strictly one subversion that is a beta subversion for RHEL?

No.

It seems that the flow will be about:
1. There is RHEL 8.x
2. RHEL staff will create packages that could go to RHEL 8.(x+1)
3. RHEL staff release those packages to CentOS Stream (8)
4. RHEL staff tweaks packages
5. RHEL 8.(x+1) is released
The Stream might have packages that go to RHEL 8.(x+1) before 8.(x+1) is released, or the packages might differ.


As for doing magic ... the release delays that we have seen with CentOS (point) releases should indicate how deep magic does it take.
Gregory Kurtzer has announced the Rocky Linux project. Perhaps you should join his team of wizards?

I read about it this morning. My first reaction was this was a joke -- a very BAD joke -- so I immediately came over here. I've just invested in new hardware based on Zen 3, and was looking at making CentOS 8 the center of the new workstation. I use to use Fedora but after shedding more blood than I cared to by living on the bleeding edge, I jumped ship and migrated over CentOS, a rather ho-hum, but rock stable distro. I can live with ho-hum, so long as it is rock stable.

CentOS Stream sounds like a disaster. If RH hopes to put another layer of testing between Fedora and RHEL by going Fedora --> CentOS Stream --> RHEL, I'm afraid they are going to be sorrily disappointed. While I have used RH and its derivatives for over 20 years, it is time to get off the RH Train. While I HOPE that Red Hat is going to see the Error of its ways and will issue a very FAST reversal of this ill conceived plan, because of people fleeing in record numbers of anything that smacks of "Red Hat", I seriously doubt that will happen. So....

Any suggestions for a ROCK STABLE non-rolling release OS? Instead of kicking the tires of CentOS 8.3, if and when it comes out, I'm going to start kicking the tires of a whole lot of other OS's IMMEDIATELY that could possibly REPLACE CentOS 8.x. Please list below any alternatives you might recommend. Rats fleeing a sinking ship. To say that this SUCKS is an understatement.

1)
2)
3)
etc.

[bluegroper]

RIP CentOS 8.
We hope CentOS 7 continues until 2024, BUT do we trust IBM/RedHat to stay true to their word ?
IMHO Debian based distros including Ubuntu are about to become increasingly popular.
Such a shame for those of us using RH since the mid 1990's.

Or maybe some clever and energetic folk could start another RH fork.
Is the RH branding still the only part of RH distro that is subject to copyright ?
Perhaps a new fork could be called Centose or CenToes.
Looks like those .org domains are available too. Prolly won't last long.

[tunk]

There's a new rebuild of RHEL in a very early stage:
https://github.com/rocky-linux/organiza ... ntributing

[cwsd]

My question... Are they going to continue to "release" subversions? So will a CentOS 8.5 match RHEL 8.5? Or will CentOS become strictly one subversion that is a beta subversion for RHEL?

No.

It seems that the flow will be about:
1. There is RHEL 8.x
2. RHEL staff will create packages that could go to RHEL 8.(x+1)
3. RHEL staff release those packages to CentOS Stream (8)
4. RHEL staff tweaks packages
5. RHEL 8.(x+1) is released
The Stream might have packages that go to RHEL 8.(x+1) before 8.(x+1) is released, or the packages might differ.


As for doing magic ... the release delays that we have seen with CentOS (point) releases should indicate how deep magic does it take.
Gregory Kurtzer has announced the Rocky Linux project. Perhaps you should join his team of wizards?

I read about it this morning. My first reaction was this was a joke -- a very BAD joke -- so I immediately came over here. I've just invested in new hardware based on Zen 3, and was looking at making CentOS 8 the center of the new workstation. I use to use Fedora but after shedding more blood than I cared to by living on the bleeding edge, I jumped ship and migrated over CentOS, a rather ho-hum, but rock stable distro. I can live with ho-hum, so long as it is rock stable.

CentOS Stream sounds like a disaster. If RH hopes to put another layer of testing between Fedora and RHEL by going Fedora --> CentOS Stream --> RHEL, I'm afraid they are going to be sorrily disappointed. While I have used RH and its derivatives for over 20 years, it is time to get off the RH Train. While I HOPE that Red Hat is going to see the Error of its ways and will issue a very FAST reversal of this ill conceived plan, because of people fleeing in record numbers of anything that smacks of "Red Hat", I seriously doubt that will happen. So....

Any suggestions for a ROCK STABLE non-rolling release OS? Instead of kicking the tires of CentOS 8.3, if and when it comes out, I'm going to start kicking the tires of a whole lot of other OS's IMMEDIATELY that could possibly REPLACE CentOS 8.x. Please list below any alternatives you might recommend. Rats fleeing a sinking ship. To say that this SUCKS is an understatement.

1)
2)
3)
etc.

1) Rocky linux
2) OpenSUSE Leap
3) Ubuntu LTS
4) Debian

[TrevorH]

While I appreciate the sentiment for Rocky Linux, it should be noted that isn't currently any sort of alternative. It is around 48h old and has no infrastructure, no machines to build on, no experienced builders and is - right now - vapourware.

That doesn't mean I am against them, I'm just pointing out the facts as they stand now. I hope that it gets considerable traction and becomes an alternative but right now, it's not. They haven't even built a single package let alone an entire distro. Even if the situation were different and the entire team that currently build CentOS resigned from RH and joined Rocky, it would still take months to get to the point where they could release anything (leaving aside any non-compete clauses in RH contracts etc).

[cwsd]

While I appreciate the sentiment for Rocky Linux, it should be noted that isn't currently any sort of alternative. It is around 48h old and has no infrastructure, no machines to build on, no experienced builders and is - right now - vapourware.

That doesn't mean I am against them, I'm just pointing out the facts as they stand now. I hope that it gets considerable traction and becomes an alternative but right now, it's not. They haven't even built a single package let alone an entire distro. Even if the situation were different and the entire team that currently build CentOS resigned from RH and joined Rocky, it would still take months to get to the point where they could release anything (leaving aside any non-compete clauses in RH contracts etc).

Yes i could have mentioned that Rocky linux has just started. So it's necessary to wait and watch it's status.