https://www.cyberciti.biz/linux-news...centos-stream/

Am I interpreting these statements correctly ?

CentOS distribution will be terminated as of 2021 ?

CentOS will become a rolling-release distribution called CentOS Stream after 2021. See this for the EOL of CentOS 7 & 8.

CentOS 8 will not be supported beyond 2021 (i.e. no security updates, etc).
CentOS 7 will be supported until 2024.

There are two existing threads about this on LQ:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/centos-111/centos-project-shifts-focus-to-centos-stream-4175686578

https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-server-73/the-centos-problem-4175686575

Ahh ..had to look this up ... Point release as opposed to rolling release. From what I'm reading, I suppose the down side in a Enterprise environment is instability of rolling releases. There are some convenience .. maybe hot fixes of bugs .. to rolling releases. But I think in Enterprise environments Point rollouts might be a better option.

One thing is for sure .. administrators need to make a few decisions. If an enterprise environment doesnt want to use the CentOS rolling release nor pay Redhat, Im guessing the only other option is to move to a different point release distribution.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in <CentOS> and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Options are:
1) Switch to CentOS Stream (the beta/rc for RHEL).
2) Switch to RHEL after signing up for the RHEL developer program (which now provides upto 16 zero cost licenses).
3) Switch to another RHEL-based distro (Oracle,Rocky,etc).
4) Migrate to another platform entirely (e.g. Debian).

Read the threads I linked for more details.

Had a dev buddy tell me last night that RHEL is now free for a small number of servers. It's free for developers but there are other restrictions. I can't find where this is available now on their site though - will have to ask him for a link.

Rocky is not yet up and running but a good alternative would be Springdale — that's produced at Princeton University.

Rocky will be up and running before CentOS 8 support ends, and thus it is an option - just as the RHEL developer program (which is soon but not yet upgraded) is an option.


"Good" is relative, and depends specifically on what users are looking for.

There's already a thread discussing the various RHEL-based distros, which includes mention of Springdale (twice!) along with the other RHEL-based distros (both existing and new), all collectively covered by the "etc".

thanks .. didnt notice that room

It's part of their expanded developer program. Just login/register on the Red Hat Developers site (https://developers.redhat.com) and you'll get a free developer subscription that allows 16 entitlements. These used to be limited to just 1 install for development purposes, but the terms have changed to allow up to 16 installs for development or production use.

I know from experience that some major hosting providers (including my own) use CentOS for customers who want to run their websites on Linux.

I will be interested to see how this decision affects them and how they react to this.

I run a hosting company. Right now, we're still offering CentOS 7 since it has support through June 30, 2024. CentOS 8 is also offered, though we're advising customers either go with CentOS 7, RHEL, or Ubuntu. By then, we're hoping either or both Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux are certified with our vendors. But this move where RHEL is now free for small workloads in production, we decided to add RHEL back to our line up. Bring-Your-Own-License, though.

Web Hosting businesses can use CloudLinux and the soon to be forked CentOS by CloudLinux called AlmaLinux.org - there will be options before the end of the year.