From the CentOS mailing list this morning, Rich Bowen states:
The future of the CentOS Project is CentOS Stream, and over the next
year we’ll be 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. CentOS Linux 8, as a rebuild of RHEL 8, will end
at the end of 2021. CentOS Stream continues after that date, serving as
the upstream (development) branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
CentOS Stream will also be the centerpiece of a major shift in
collaboration among the CentOS Special Interest Groups (SIGs). This
ensures SIGs are developing and testing against what becomes the next
version of RHEL. This also provides SIGs a clear single goal, rather
than having to build and test for two releases. It gives the CentOS
contributor community a great deal of influence in the future of RHEL.
And it removes confusion around what “CentOS” means in the Linux
distribution ecosystem.
When CentOS Linux 8 (the rebuild of RHEL8) ends, your best option will
be to migrate to CentOS Stream 8, which is a small delta from CentOS
Linux 8, and has regular updates like traditional CentOS Linux releases.
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.
We have an FAQ - https://centos.org/distro-faq/ - to help with your
information and planning needs, as you figure out how this shift of
project focus might affect you.
To me, this might disrupt a lot of people who banked on CentOS as the “Free RHEL” for their stability. I wonder if this paradigm shift will lead current users to switch to a different server distro.
This sounds like a massive footgun. From the epitome of stability to rolling release… I don’t use CentOS but I can see how this would scare anyone relying on it.
Are they doing it because RedHat is doing something similar?
What’s involved with migrating from centos to centos stream? Do you just change the repos and update?
I’m not too worried about it otherwise as long as it’s pretty stable. I don’t think it is rolling like Arch is rolling. When RHEL 9 comes out, there will be Centos 9 Stream which will be distinct from Centos 8 Stream. It just doesn’t have sudden point releases and is ahead of RHEL instead of behind.
TBH though I think this change will make it more like Fedora because it will sit ahead of RHEL in the stack but be more current than RHEL instead of being as current as RHEL.
So its like Fedora -> CentOS Stream -> RHEL
Instead of CentOS existing in its own silo alongside RHEL.
Yeah. Red Hat realized that CentOS as a RHEL clone was of essentially no use to them. Adding it as a second stability tier after Fedora makes perfect business sense.
So as long as the stability isn’t messed with to hard, I won’t mind the changes all that much. I think a lot of the community would welcome somewhat newer packages than what they’re currently getting.
