On Tuesday, Red Hat CTO Chris Wright and CentOS Community Manager Rich Bowen each announced a massive change in the future and function of CentOS Linux. Moving forward, there will be no CentOS Linux—instead, there will (only) be CentOS Stream.
CentOS Linux is dead—and Red Hat says Stream is “not a replacement”.
CentOS Stream, founded in 2019, is “a rolling preview of what’s next in RHEL.”
. A rolling-release Linux is one that’s constantly being updated. CentOS Stream tracks just ahead of a current RHEL release. This may sound like CentOS will be RHEL’s beta, but CentOS denies this.
This reminds me of the always “beta” and maybe no production ready Fedora Linux. Fedora is a Linux distribution developed by the community-supported Fedora Project which is sponsored primarily by Red Hat, a subsidiary of IBM.
CentOS Linux users are angry.
CentOS has been a very widely used rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). CentOS is an extremely popular server operating system in its own right. I have used them, developed software for them, done cyber security hardening for them and built systems using them. The fixed-release model is the one most server Linux distributions have historically used.
In near future CentOS is no longer the production quality server OS we used to know and like. CentOS Linux 8 will end in 2021. CentOS shifts focus to CentOS Stream which is not the same. Red Hat and IBM effectively killed CentOS Linux 8 as we used to know it. CentOS Linux 7 will be supported few years longer. Red Hat doesn’t see CentOS Stream as a production server.
Even though Red Hat and IBM killed CentOS Linux 8, not ALL hope maybe lost. There is a new project Rocky Linux as the 100% rebuild of RHEL. It is a work in progress with no ETA. However, some challenges remain. Let’s see if this leads to anything useful.
What are alternatives for server Linux?
Ubuntu is the most popular Linux server operating system with 47.5%, CentOS is number two with 18.8% and Debian is third, 17.5%. RHEL? It’s a distant fourth with 1.8%.
62 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/12/09/centos-is-dead-long-live-centos/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Obvious that the Redhat infiltration of the CentOS governance board was effective.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Goodbye CentOS, hello Rocky Linux
https://www.zdnet.com/article/goodbye-centos-hello-rocky-linux/
Red Hat is transforming CentOS into a DevOps-friendly, leading-edge rolling release. Many people liked it just the way it was. Now, CentOS’s founder is working on giving them what they want.
When Red Hat, CentOS’s Linux parent company, announced it was “shifting focus from CentOS Linux, the rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), to CentOS Stream, which tracks just ahead of a current RHEL release.” Many CentOS screamed in protest on social media. CentOS co-founder, Gregory Kurtzer, heard them and announced he’d create his own RHEL clone and CentOS replacement: Rocky Linux
Kurtzer, whose day job is now CEO and founder at Control Command, a high-performance computing startup, said:
“I was just as shocked as the rest of the community with the news from Red Hat. When I started CentOS 16 years ago, I never imagined the incredible reach and impact it would have around the world on individuals and companies who rely on CentOS for Linux distribution.”
Who are these companies? They’re names you know. Major companies that don’t just use CentOS but depend on it include Disney, GoDaddy, RackSpace, Toyota, and Verizon. Other important technology companies build products around CentOS. These include GE, Riverbed, F5, Juniper, and Fortinet.
This isn’t just a few disgruntled users venting on Hacker News, Twitter, and Reddit. These are multi-billion-dollar companies. I’m told by executives at several of these enterprises they are not happy at all and are looking for alternatives. While some of them are considering switching to RHEL, many more are looking at other Linux distributions. Canonical’s Ubuntu was the one most often mentioned.
Some of them may now look to Rocky Linux.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CentOS 8 is being forced-end by the end of 202. Here’s what you need to do if you still want to stay with CentOS.
How to Migrate CentOS 8 to CentOS Steam
https://linuxhandbook.com/update-to-centos-stream/
CentOS 8 reaches end of life by the end of 2021. Learn how to update CentOS 8 to CentOS Stream.
Red Hat and CentOS recently announced that CentOS will be converted to a rolling release distribution in the form of CentOS Stream.
While CentOS 7 will be supported till 2024, CentOS 8 support ends by the end of 2021.
With this development, the current CentOS 8 users are left with two choices, either move to server distributions like Debian, openSUSE, Ubuntu LTS, or update the current CentOS system to CentOS Stream.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how you can update your current CentOS 8 install to CentOS Stream.
The idea is simple. To convert, you need to add Stream’s repos, and remove the existing ones.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do all that manually. There is a handy tool provided by the CentOS team for this purpose.
Make a backup before you update. The update procedure is simple but create backup for the sake of it.
Step 1: Install the repo files
Install the package centos-release-stream. This contains all the repo files that are needed.
dnf install centos-release-stream -y
Step 2: Update the system
Update the system or the packages to be specific, by running the distro-sync command.
dnf distro-sync -y
This syncs all the local packages to the upstream’s versions.
Step 3: Reboot and double-check the installed version
Now, reboot your server:
reboot
After the system is booted successfully, verify the migration by checking the CentOS version.
You can do that by reading the os-release file:
[root@li2029-76 ~]# cat /etc/centos-release
CentOS Stream release 8
Or, read the centos-release file:
[root@li2029-76 ~]# cat /etc/os-release
NAME=”CentOS Stream”
VERSION=”8″
ID=”centos”
ID_LIKE=”rhel fedora”
VERSION_ID=”8″
PLATFORM_ID=”platform:el8″
PRETTY_NAME=”CentOS Stream 8″
ANSI_COLOR=”0;31″
CPE_NAME=”cpe:/o:centos:centos:8″
HOME_URL=”https://centos.org/”
BUG_REPORT_URL=”https://bugzilla.redhat.com/”
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT=”Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8″
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=”CentOS Stream”
You should see a similar output.
Is it safe to upgrade to CentOS Stream?
How careful should you be before starting the update? Is it safe? To be honest, I can’t tell you “Oh do it, it’ll be just alright” in confidence. A lot of moving parts contribute to the stability of a system. This process doesn’t exactly make sure nothing will break.
I suggest taking a snapshot of your system if you are running in a VM. Take backup because you can never be too careful.
As for service downtime, if your system is part of a cluster, the orchestrator should take care of the total number of running instances, eliminating downtime. If you’re using a single node docker environment, using the live-restore feature of docker will eliminate any downtime in case a docker update is on the queue. Other than that, your current methods of countering any downtime should be good enough.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rocky Linux could be the future
https://rockylinux.org/
Looks like the original creator of centOS is creating a new red hat based distro https://github.com/rocky-linux/rocky
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where do I go now that CentOS Linux is gone? Check our list
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/centos-linux-is-gone-but-its-refugees-have-alternatives/
In an unexpected announcement earlier this week, Red Hat killed off the free-as-in-beer CentOS variant of their flagship distribution, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The announcement—which clearly stated “CentOS Stream is not a replacement for CentOS Linux”—left thousands of CentOS users stunned and bewildered. In many cases, CentOS users had migrated to CentOS 8—which they expected to receive support until 2029—only to find out that their “until-2029″ distro had become an “until-2021″ distro just a few months after they’d installed it in the first place.
1. CentOS Stream
Before this week, the relationship between CentOS Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux was, effectively, “it’s the same thing, but without the branding and the support.” In a lot of ways, that relationship will continue to be true. CentOS Stream and Red Hat Enterprise Linux will still track very closely to one another. The new relationship works like this:
RHEL version x.0 forks from Fedora
CentOS Stream version x forks from RHEL version x.0
Development work for RHEL x.1 is done in CentOS Stream version x repos
RHEL x.1 forks from CentOS Stream version x
…
RHEL version y.0 forks from Fedora
CentOS Stream version y forks from RHEL y.0
Development work for RHEL x.2 is done in CentOS Stream version x repos
Development work for RHEL y.1 is done in CentOS Stream version y repos
RHEL x.2 forks from CentOS Stream x
RHEL y.1 forks from CentOS Stream y
And so forth. So, while CentOS Stream is something of a rolling release, it’s a limited one—it rolls from one minor version to the next, but its major version is stable and tracks Fedora’s. A CentOS Stream 8 user won’t be forced to dogfood RHEL 9 code any earlier than a CentOS Linux 8 user would have.
2. Oracle Linux
Yes, Oracle. Here we go with the pitchforks again, right? Well, Oracle Linux is 100 percent application binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It’s a “rebuild distro” based on RHEL’s sources and not much else, just like CentOS Linux was.
If all you need or want is a free-as-in-beer distro that tracks RHEL precisely, Oracle Linux might be your new home.
3. Cloud Linux
CloudLinux OS is a RHEL rebuild distro designed for shared hosting providers. CloudLinux OS itself probably isn’t the free replacement for CentOS anyone is looking for—it’s more akin to RHEL itself, with subscription fees necessary for production use.
However, the CloudLinux OS maintainers have announced that they’ll be releasing a 1:1 replacement for CentOS in Q1 2021.
This should also be a very easy upgrade for CentOS 8 users—there’s already a very easy one-script migration path from CentOS to the full CloudLinux OS. Converting from CentOS to “the new fork” should be just as simple, and without the registration step necessary for the full Cloud Linux.
4. Springdale Linux
I’ve seen a lot of folks mistakenly recommending the deceased Scientific Linux distro as a CentOS replacement—that won’t work, because Scientific Linux itself was deprecated in favor of CentOS. However, Springdale Linux is very similar—like Scientific Linux, it’s a RHEL rebuild distro made by and for the academic scientific community. Unlike Scientific Linux, it’s still actively maintained!
Springdale Linux is maintained and made available by Princeton and Rutgers universities, who use it for their HPC projects. It’s been around for quite a long time.
Springdale Linux should be a natural fit for universities and scientists looking for a CentOS replacement. It will likely work for most anyone who needs it—but its relatively small community
5. Rocky Linux
I need to be very clear, here: for the moment, Rocky Linux is a concept, not an actual distribution. CentOS co-founder Greg Kurtzer reacted almost immediately to Red Hat’s discontinuation of CentOS Linux by announcing his intention to effectively recreate it under a different name
6. HPE ClearOS
The last of the RHEL downstreams up for discussion today is Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s in-house distro, ClearOS. Hewlett Packard makes ClearOS available as a preinstalled option on its ProLiant server line, and the company offers a free Community version to all comers.
the most recent version is ClearOS 7.x, which is in turn based on RHEL 7.
ClearOS is probably most interesting to small business types who might consider buying ProLiant servers with RHEL-compatible OEM linux pre-installed later.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat is transforming CentOS into a DevOps-friendly, leading-edge rolling release. Many people liked it just the way it was. Now, CentOS’s founder is working on giving them what they want.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/goodbye-centos-hello-rocky-linux/?ftag=COS-05-10aaa0h&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.infoworld.com/article/3601202/red-hats-crime-against-centos.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat resets CentOS Linux and users are angry
CentOS is becoming a rolling Linux distribution, which leaves businesses depending on CentOS for a stable server or embedded operating system in the lurch.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-resets-centos-linux-and-users-are-angry/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CloudLinux to invest more than a million dollars a year into CentOS clone
With Red Hat changing CentOS Linux into a rolling release, CloudLinux is the second group to announce it’s making a bigger, better stable point CentOS: Lenix.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cloudlinux-to-invest-more-than-a-million-dollar-a-year-into-centos-clone/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/clearing-up-the-centos-stream-confusion/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.gluu.org/blog/keycloak-is-the-next-centos/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/centos-linux-is-gone-but-its-refugees-have-alternatives/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://linuxhandbook.com/update-to-centos-stream/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rocky Linux is go: CentOS founder’s new project aims to be 100% compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Rocking the Red Hat boat with an alternative distro designed for production use
https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/10/rocky_linux/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.change.org/p/centos-governing-board-do-not-destroy-centos-by-using-it-as-a-rhel-upstream?recruiter=1168041294&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.cyberciti.biz/linux-news/centos-linux-8-will-end-in-2021-and-shifts-focus-to-centos-stream/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-red-hat-dumped-centos-for-centos-stream/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat Goes Full IBM and Says Farewell to CentOS
https://www.servethehome.com/red-hat-goes-full-ibm-and-says-farewell-to-centos/
Between that acquisition, and 2020, we had a period where loosely CentOS would follow RHEL releases, supported by official Red Hat resources, by a few months. It took some time to extract bits of IP in RHEL and other changes, but for years, this was the operating model.
Another key factoid is that the end of support for CentOS 6 was in November 2020. Since RHEL and CentOS are known for long support cycles, a lot of organizations decided to jump from CentOS 6 to 8 instead of re-platforming on 7 since that maximizes the time until another re-platforming effort would need to be scheduled. Or that is what many in the industry thought.
Then, on December 8, 2020, Red Hat announced that it was going to cut the current CentOS 8 support timeframe down considerably in the process of effectively killing the project. While 2021 may not be impacted, with CentOS 6 EOL on November 30, 2020, and CentOS 8 EOL on December 31, 2021, by January 1, 2022 CentOS 7 will be the only one receiving Maintenance Updates. The CentOS name will live on but in a different part of the ecosystem than it has to date.
CentOS Stream and the New Red Hat Operating Model
CentOS Stream is a project that sits between the upstream Fedora Linux and RHEL. While CentOS 8 is being shut down, and we do not expect a CentOS 9 unless there is a major change in direction at Red Hat, the CentOS name will live on for now in the CentOS Stream after CentOS 7 eventually goes EOL on June 30, 2024.
For those who are current CentOS users, this means that what will be known as CentOS is being moved upstream of RHEL instead of downstream. Many of the current CentOS users like the fact that it is broadly tied to the RHEL ecosystem, and by moving it upstream it becomes a different value proposition.
What Red Hat Needs to Do, ASAP
As part of the announcement, RHEL has hinted that it would be doing something with its RHEL licensing to help the CentOS community, and there is a step it could take to turn this into an amazing gambit for Red Hat: opening a non-subscription level to RHEL beyond the current developer license.
“There are different kinds of CentOS users, and we are working with the CentOS Project Governing Board to tailor programs that meet the needs of these different user groups. In the first half of 2021, we plan to introduce low- or no-cost programs for a variety of use cases, including options for open source projects and communities and expansion of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer subscription use cases to better serve the needs of systems administrators. We’ll share more details as these initiatives coalesce.“ (Source: Red Hat)
This is the sort of move that could yield huge dividends for Red Hat. If the migration path was from CentOS 8 to a carefully crafted “RHEL-freemium” distribution, which is how many viewed CentOS at a high-level anyway, then it has the ability to greatly increase Red Hat’s installed base in its main RHEL distribution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://centos.rip/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CentOS is gone—but RHEL is now free for up to 16 production servers
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/centos-is-gone-but-rhel-is-now-free-for-up-to-16-production-servers/
Last month, Red Hat caused a lot of consternation in the enthusiast and small business Linux world when it announced the discontinuation of CentOS Linux.
Long-standing tradition—and ambiguity in Red Hat’s posted terms—led users to believe that CentOS 8 would be available until 2029, just like the RHEL 8 it was based on. Red Hat’s early termination of CentOS 8 in 2021 cut eight of those 10 years away, leaving thousands of users stranded.
To summarize: we’re making CentOS Stream the collaboration hub for RHEL, with the landscape looking like this:
Fedora Linux is the place for major new operating system innovations, thoughts, and ideas—essentially, this is where the next major version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is
born.
CentOS Stream is the continuously delivered platform that becomes the next minor version of RHEL.
RHEL is the intelligent operating system for production workloads, used in nearly every industry in the world, from cloud-scale deployments in mission-critical data centers and localized server rooms to public clouds and out to far-flung edges of enterprise networks.
Although CentOS Stream could be considered appropriate and perfectly adequate for enthusiasts and home-labbers, the lack of a long, well-defined life cycle made it inappropriate for most production use and, especially, production use by shops that chose a RHEL-compatible distribution in the first place.
New no-cost, low-cost, and simplified RHEL access
As of February 1, 2021, Red Hat will make RHEL available at no cost for small-production workloads—with “small” defined as 16 systems or fewer. This access to no-cost production RHEL is by way of the newly expanded Red Hat Developer Subscription program, and it comes with no strings—in Red Hat’s words, “this isn’t a sales program, and no sales representative will follow up.”
Red Hat is also expanding the availability of developer subscriptions to teams, as well as individual users. Moving forward, subscribing RHEL customers can add entire dev teams to the developer subscription program at no cost.
A Red Hat subscription gives you access to all available versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux except for those in extended support. This access ends when the subscription ends, as does access to all related documentation, support, services, patches, etc., so it’s important to think about the subscription separately from the platform.
Our intent is to keep small-production use cases as a key part of the Red Hat Developer program and the Individual Developer subscription to help bring enterprise-grade Linux to more users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat introduces new no-cost RHEL option
https://www.cyberciti.biz/linux-news/red-hat-introduces-new-no-cost-rhel-option/
Red Hat Enterprise Linux programs details
Now you can have a 100% RHEL no-cost subscription for the following two types of groups:
1. RHEL for small production workloads
Red Hat developer program allows single machine subscription for developers. You can’t use a developer subscription in production. However, this changes today:
The Individual Developer subscription for RHEL can be used in production for up to 16 systems. That’s exactly what it sounds like: for small production use cases, this is no-cost, self-supported RHEL. You need only to sign in with a free Red Hat account to download RHEL and receive updates. Nothing else is required. This isn’t a sales program, and no sales representative will follow up. An option will exist within the
subscription to easily upgrade to full support, but that’s up to you.
New Year, new Red Hat Enterprise Linux programs: Easier ways to access RHEL
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/new-year-new-red-hat-enterprise-linux-programs-easier-ways-access-rhel
Tomi Engdahl says:
Does this sound good to you assuming they don’t decide to pull the rug on this, too?
“In response to complaints about Red Hat’s latest plans for CentOS Linux, Red Hat will start offering no-cost Red Hat Enterprise Linux for small production workloads and customer development teams.”
“Yes, they mean production use and there’s no catch. This is a free, self-supported RHEL offering.”
https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-introduces-free-rhel-for-small-production-workloads-development-teams/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Red Hat killed CentOS—a CentOS board member speaks
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/on-the-death-of-centos-red-hat-liaison-brian-exelbierd-speaks/
The devil in these particular details, of course, is that “the CentOS board doesn’t get to decide what Red Hat engineering teams do.” This is the contribution that Exelbierd mentioned earlier—specifically, the labor of Red Hat engineering teams. According to Exelbierd, Red Hat decided “we’re going to make some fundamental changes in how we direct our investment,” then “went to the CentOS project and said, here is a thing Red Hat is going to do.”
That thing was the cessation of Red Hat’s support for CentOS Linux while prioritizing its investment in CentOS Stream, which Exelbierd describes as “critical” to Red Hat. “We laid out our case and we said that we’re moving our engineering contribution, people time in some cases… we want to call your attention to them because depending on what you decide to do, there are potential liability issues that could result, so we want to make sure you have a plan.”
Not a sales push, Exelbierd says
Exelbierd says that short-term profits—the migration of some end users from free use of CentOS Linux to paid RHEL subscriptions—was not a key motivator for the company. He pointed out that the email address offered for those considering a switch to RHEL doesn’t go to the sales department—”it goes to me and two of my colleagues in the business unit,” he said.
Rather than a bunch of small sales, Exelbierd says looking for feedback—the sort of feedback Red Hat has not traditionally received from CentOS users, most of whom “never called, never write, they don’t interact with us.” The feedback address, he says, “is the business model. It is absolutely not a mailing list for salespeople [...] nobody wants to go after the person with one server, two servers, 16 servers. There are definitely going to be some folks for whom their CentOS Linux… will become paid RHEL, absolutely. But our goal was not to sit down and make every CentOS Linux user a revenue RHEL customer.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.enterpriseai.news/2021/01/22/red-hats-disruption-of-centos-unleashes-storm-of-dissent/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/26/killing_centos/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-introduces-free-rhel-for-small-production-workloads-development-teams/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.servethehome.com/ibm-red-hat-attempts-migrating-centos-users-to-rhel-subscriptions/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.cyberciti.biz/linux-news/red-hat-introduces-new-no-cost-rhel-option/
Tomi Engdahl says:
AlmaLinux, the CentOS Linux replacement, beta is out
https://www.zdnet.com/article/almalinux-the-centos-linux-replacement-beta-is-out/
AlmaLinux, the open-source enterprise-level Linux distribution created as an alternative to CentOS, has been released in beta with most Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages
AlmaLinux is a binary compatible community RHEL server Linux fork. CloudLinux is backing AlmaLinux with a $1 million annual sponsorship. CloudLinux promises this first release based on RHEL 8.x will be supported until at least 2029. The new distro is based on a community-driven approach to fill the gap left by the CentOS stable release’s demise.
“As promised, the main development and maintenance were done by the CloudLinux team. And now we appeal to the community for its contributions,” said CloudLinux’s founder and CEO, Igor Seletskiy. “In the spirit of the community-driven initiative, we now require assistance with testing, documentation, support, and planning the future roadmap.
AlmaLinux
https://almalinux.org/
An open-source RHEL fork built by the team at CloudLinux, inspired by the community.
Welcome to AlmaLinux, a new RHEL fork from the team at CloudLinux. A free Linux OS for the community, developed in close co-operation with the community.
Why “Alma”? At CloudLinux, we have benefited from the dedicated, nourishing efforts of the Linux community – just like everyone else that relies on a Linux-powered OS.
We intend to deliver this forever-free Linux distribution in Q1 2021 – initially built by our own expertise, but owned and governed by the community.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux and open-source jobs are hotter than ever
So, you want a great job in technology? The Linux Foundation and Edx HR survey shows your best move will be to polish up your Linux and open-source skills.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-and-open-source-jobs-are-hotter-than-ever/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CentOS is dead, long live CentOS!
https://www.linuxtrainingacademy.com/centos-linux-vs-centos-stream/
Tomi Engdahl says:
CentOS Creator Gregory Kurtzer Discusses His New Distro, Rocky Linux
https://thenewstack.io/centos-creator-gregory-kurtzer-discusses-his-new-distro-rocky-linux/
Rocky Linux is a new distribution based on a 1:1-compatible Red Hat Enterprise Linux binary, one designed as a drop-in replacement for CentOS, which used to be the go-to binary compatible version of RHEL (without the licensing fees) until Red Hat changed the course of CentOS last year to be more of an experimental distro. Rocky was created by the same person who birthed CentOS into being, Gregory Kurtzer, and Rocky follows the same mission of offering an enterprise-ready version of Linux.
The New Stack was fortunate enough to ask Kurtzer a few questions about his new distribution. For anyone who’s been anxious about what to do, now that CentOS is no longer the platform it once was, grab your favorite beverage and read on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rocky Linux gets a new sponsor—Gregory Kurtzer’s startup, Ctrl IQ
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/01/rocky-linux-gets-a-parent-company-with-4m-series-a-funding/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://thenewstack.io/almalinux-captures-the-soul-of-centos/
Tomi Engdahl says:
AlmaLinux, the CentOS Linux replacement, beta is out
AlmaLinux, the open-source enterprise-level Linux distribution created as an alternative to CentOS, has been released in beta with most Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages
https://www.zdnet.com/article/almalinux-the-centos-linux-replacement-beta-is-out/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat introduces free RHEL for open-source, non-profit organizations
Some CentOS users still aren’t happy, but Red Hat is keeping its promise to open-source organizations that they’ll have access to a free version of RHEL.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/free-red-hat-enterprise-linux-for-open-source-non-profit-organizations/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat returns with another peace offering in the wake of the CentOS Stream affair: More free stuff
Approved open-source projects to get no-cost subscriptions (if they haven’t already got one)
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/26/rhel_open_source/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Self-supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server virty users see stealth inflation
Software remains pretty much the same… but at twice the price
https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/05/redhat_enterprise_costs/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Hat’s survey results on the state of enterprise open-source software
It’s an open-source IT world out there, and these days we’re all living there.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hats-survey-results-on-the-state-of-enterprise-open-source-software/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shedding the ‘bleeding edge’ label: If Fedora is only going to be for personal use, that doesn’t work for Red Hat
Ahead of Fedora 34 release, we talk to project leader Matthew Miller
https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2021/03/25/what_is_fedora_linux_for/?__twitter_impression=true
It is well known that Fedora is the first place new Linux technology lands in the Red Hat family of Linux distributions. What is in Fedora, presuming it proves its worth, is likely to end up in CentOS Stream and then in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the company’s commercial operating system. Fedora is therefore meant to be fast-moving, but what does that mean in terms of when it makes sense to use it? For example, is it fine for a personal laptop but not sensible for a production server?
“I’m glad that we moved beyond the ‘it’s bleeding edge’ narrative,” Miller says. “It’s great for your laptop because we put a lot of work into that. I think it can be great for other use cases, so we have a Fedora Server edition and we have a Fedora CoreOS for IoT and other things.”
Miller prefers to say leading edge. “Some people who run Fedora Server in production like to have the latest kernel for hardware enablement and for features that they use… I would say about 20-30 per cent of Fedora systems are being used in a non-desktop context.”
Is Fedora as stable as other distributions? “Stability is a loaded word,” says Miller. “Is this gonna crash on me? In that sense, Fedora Server is very stable. Having the latest software often means that bugs and security are fixed more quickly than they are in slower moving distributions. On the other hand, the long-term distributions work by basically not making changes. Fedora doesn’t follow that, your packages will get updated. We try to make it so that major breaking changes happen on releases rather than just as updates. But sometimes, if there is a security problem, we will put out a newer version of something. So for that kind of stable, it is much less so.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
CentOS is Dead. Long Live CentOS! (CentOS Stream Explained)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxn4UrwMtoQ
In this video, you’re going to learn about the change in focus of the CentOS project from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream. More importantly, you’re going to learn what that means for you and any actions you might want to take as a result of this change. So, if you use CentOS in any capacity, be it professionally, for educational purposes, or just for fun, you’ll want to watch this video.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://almalinux.org/
Launched with the code-name Project Lenix, AlmaLinux OS is an open-source, community-driven project that intends to fill the gap left by the demise of the CentOS stable release. AlmaLinux OS is a 1:1 binary compatible fork of RHEL® 8 and it is built by the creators of the established CloudLinux OS.
As a standalone, completely free OS, AlmaLinux OS enjoys $1M in annual sponsorship from CloudLinux Inc. We will support future RHEL® releases by updating AlmaLinux OS. Ongoing development efforts are governed by the members of the community.
The AlmaLinux OS Foundation is a 501(c)(6) non-profit created for the benefit of the AlmaLinux OS community.
AlmaLinux OS is an enterprise-grade server OS, a stable Linux distribution with regular releases that come with long support windows. You can rely on AlmaLinux OS to run you and your clients’ critical workloads.
CentOS-like distribution based on a precise RHEL clone
Fully supported, always free
CloudLinux is backing AlmaLinux OS with deep investment and a long support commitment. We also commit to delivering AlmaLinux OS free of limitations, fees and charges.
Forever free and open-source: no licenses, no usage restrictions
Rely on a project that is owned and governed in partnership with the community.
Support commitment through 2029
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alma Linux Install
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk-x1okzAkE
Alma linux is a Redhat based linux distribution from the good people at cloud linux . Alma Linux is a free community enterprise linux distro with a promise of staying free forever developed as an alternative to Centos
Tomi Engdahl says:
almalinux-deploy
An EL to AlmaLinux migration tool.
https://github.com/AlmaLinux/almalinux-deploy
Tomi Engdahl says:
AlmaLinux OS Stable Live Launch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmjQInMOQbM
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ilmainen vaihtoehto Red Hatille: tällainen on AlmaLinux OS
12.4.202107:01
CloudLinuxin kehittäjät ovat julkaisseet ensimmäisen version uudesta AlmaLinux OS -käyttöjärjestelmästä.
https://www.mikrobitti.fi/uutiset/ilmainen-vaihtoehto-red-hatille-tallainen-on-almalinux-os/e4195edc-c2d3-4b73-a146-355e5ccaa345
Tomi Engdahl says:
CentOS replacement distro AlmaLinux gets commercial support options
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/centos-replacement-distro-almalinux-gets-commercial-support-options/
AlmaLinux was initially sponsored by CloudLinux Inc. and is based on its own CloudLinux commercial distribution—but the company specifically set up the new distribution to be community owned and governed. Its qualifications as “the new CentOS” come from its base on the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
The AlmaLinux distribution offers a 10-year support cycle—like its upstream distribution RHEL—which is also important to organizations and individuals in the market for RHEL-compatible distributions. AlmaLinux’s first stable release, codenamed “Purple Manul,” launched on March 30.
Several of the AlmaLinux support services being offered by CloudLinux Inc. are, technically speaking, already offered by the community distribution itself—for example, “regular patches and updates for the Linux https://almalinux.org/support/ kernel and core packages.”
https://almalinux.org/support/
CloudLinux Inc will start providing multiple support options in May 2021 for the AlmaLinux OS — including regular patches and updates for the Linux kernel and core packages, patch delivery service-level agreements (SLAs), and 24/7 incident support.
In addition to essential AlmaLinux support services, CloudLinux is also planning to introduce a premium support tier for enterprises that require enhanced services, as well as Product NodeOS Support for AlmaLinux OS, explicitly tailored to the needs of vendors and OEMs that are planning to use AlmaLinux as a node OS underlying their commercial products and services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CentOS replacement distro AlmaLinux gets commercial support options
This CentOS replacement seems to be “getting there firstest with the mostest.”
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/centos-replacement-distro-almalinux-gets-commercial-support-options/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Where to Turn for a CentOS Replacement? Here’s 5 Solid Linux Distros to Check Out
https://thenewstack.io/where-to-turn-for-a-centos-replacement-heres-5-solid-linux-distros-to-check-out/