[wplug] CentOS Linux ending, CentOS Stream to replace it

[Jake S]

Thanks posting this Vance. 

Do you have any additional references regarding this statement?
	 " Red Hat has teased "low- or no-cost programs" with no specifics)"

Thanks,
J

-----Original Message-----
From: wplug <wplug-bounces+jskiba99=hotmail.com at wplug.org> On Behalf Of Vance Kochenderfer
Sent: Wednesday, December 9, 2020 4:54 PM
To: wplug at wplug.org
Subject: [wplug] CentOS Linux ending, CentOS Stream to replace it

The list has been quiet of late, but this seems like a big enough story
to possibly start discussion.  Or at least I might solidify my
understanding of the situation by writing this out.

The CentOS project produced "CentOS Linux" - that is, a rebuild of Red
Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) from Red Hat's source code, aiming to be
binary-compatible with RHEL.  The difference being that CentOS Linux is
available at zero cost with no Red Hat relationship needed, unlike RHEL.

Being based on RHEL's code, it lagged the updates that were released by
Red Hat, but in recent years (after the project was acquired by Red Hat)
this has been relatively short - on the order of days.  In the past, it
could lag a significantly longer time.

Last year, CentOS announced a new thing called "CentOS Stream."  This is
a rolling-release distribution that is intended to lead - not lag - RHEL
point releases.  That is, when RHEL 9 is released, CentOS Stream 9 will
match it and then start accumulating updates which will eventually be
released in RHEL 9.1.  It is not a bleeding-edge technology preview like
Fedora, but still is a proving ground for changes.  Part of the
motivation was to give RHEL customers a way to influence and test future
features to be incorporated.

The big news is that CentOS Linux is being discontinued, and only CentOS
Stream will be available going forward
<https://blog.centos.org/2020/12/future-is-centos-stream/>.  CentOS
Linux 7 will be supported until its stated end-of-life date in 2024.
CentOS Linux 8 will have its support life shortened from 2029 to the
end of 2021.  After then, CentOS 8 (and future CentOS versions) will
*only* be maintained as Stream versions.

For users of CentOS Linux expecting it to be a stable, binary-compatible
clone of RHEL, this is a jarring change.  Especially for those on CentOS
Linux 8 who now face a dramatically shortened support lifetime.

I have read differing opinions on the suitability of CentOS Stream for
production use.  Some characterize it as beta-quality, while others
claim it will be superior to CentOS Linux because fixes will appear more
quickly.  I suspect that only time will tell whether CentOS Stream fits
the use cases for which many people and organizations (including this
server!) have been using CentOS Linux.

Of note, Gregory Kurtzer, an original founder of CentOS (though he
hasn't been involved with it for several years) has stated he may start
another project to produce an RHEL rebuild <https://hpcng.org/>.  This
seems to be along the lines of Scientific Linux, which was produced by
Fermilab and CERN for (big surprise) scientific research but was
eventually discontinued with the suggestion to use CentOS instead.

So if you are using CentOS Linux in production, you face a decision on
what to do when your version's support lifetime runs out.  Assuming that
long-term support (3+ years) is important, you can:
1. Move to CentOS Stream
2. Move to another RHEL-based distribution, such as
    a. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (currently paid only, but Red Hat has
       teased "low- or no-cost programs" with no specifics)
    b. Oracle Linux (free or paid)
    c. Still-hypothetical HPCng rebuild distro
3. Move to a completely different distribution, such as
    a. Ubuntu LTS (or one of its derivatives)
    b. Debian (though not all packages and architectures are LTS)
    c. FreeBSD
    d. ???

Some articles with further background.
Overview from The Register:
<https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/09/centos_red_hat/>
ZDnet article by Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols laying out the implications:
<https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-resets-centos-linux-and-users-are-angry/>
Brief LWN mention, decent comments: <https://lwn.net/Articles/839257/>

Vance Kochenderfer        |  "Get me out of these ropes and into a
vance at happylemur.com      |   good belt of Scotch"    -Nick Danger
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