CentOS 8 and CentOS Stream

from Twitter https://twitter.com/UnixSysAdmin

Today’s announcement from CentOS means that many users who were assuming CentOS 8 would be supported until 2029 (to match that of RHEL 8) will need to look at alternatives such as CentOS Stream and Rocky Linux.  Here’s a link to the official announcements, responses and discussions.

• Official announcement: CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
• Official FAQ – CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream
• Red Hat Blog: CentOS Stream: Building an innovative future for enterprise Linux
• Red Hat Blog: FAQ: CentOS Stream Updates
• Red Hat Blog – September 2019 – CentOS Stream: Building an innovative future for enterprise Linux
• ZDNet – CloudLinux to invest more than a million dollars a year into CentOS clone
• Infoworld – Red Hat’s crime against CentOS
• Before You Get Mad About The CentOS Stream Change, Think About by fatherlinux (Scott McCarty)
• CentOS Blog: How RHEL is made by Brendan Conoboy
• Thoughts on CenOS Stream by Jim Perrin (Formerly at Red Hat, and CentOS board member)
• CentOS is NOT dead. Please Stop Saying It Is (at least until you read this) by Benjamin Porter. Ben Porter is a Linux and open source advocate, currently working as an OpenShift consultant for Red Hat.
• Reddit thread: CentOS moving to a rolling release model and will no longer be a RHEL clone
• The Register: CentOS project changes focus, no more rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux – you’ll have to flow with the Stream
• Arstechnica – CentOS Linux is dead—and Red Hat says Stream is “not a replacement”
• LWN – CentOS is dead, long live CentOS Stream
• ZDNet – Red Hat resets CentOS Linux and users are angry
• Phoronix – CentOS 8 Ending Next Year To Focus Shift On CentOS Stream
• Tech Republic – CentOS: Why the shift to CentOS Stream is a big mistake
• TechRepublic – Clearing up the CentOS Stream confusion. Follow-up to previous article – Jack Wallen attempts to not only clear the air about CentOS Stream, but offers up an apology to Red Hat for aiding the spread of confusion.
• Oracle Blog: Need a stable, RHEL-compatible alternative to CentOS? Three reasons to consider Oracle Linux by Honglin Su, Sr. Director of Product Management
• EPEL Development Mailing List – How EPEL will work with CentOS Stream
• ZFS kmod for CentOS Stream A sample issue representing how kernel modules for CentOS Stream may need to be modified if the ABI breaks between kernels
• [CentOS-devel] What should I do in my cluster? CentOS streams dilemma.
• Matthew Miller – an offer for Fedora to colloborate with CloudLinux and Rocky
• January 2014 – Red Hat and the CentOS Project Join Forces to Speed Open Source Innovation

Time will tell how this will shake out, but for now if you want to switch from CentOS 8 to CentOS stream, it’s relatively easy:

# dnf install centos-release-stream

# dnf swap centos-{linux,stream}-repos

# dnf distro-sync

# cat /etc/centos-release
CentOS Stream release 8

# rpm -qa | grep release
centos-stream-release-8.4-1.el8.noarch