The end of CentOS 8 Linux has been coming for awhile now, and the day is finally here. On December 31, 2021, Red Hat’s CentOS Linux 8 will reach End Of Life (EOL). Since that falls right in the heart of the holiday season, Red Hat will extend CentOS Linux 8 zero-day support until January 31, 2022. Indeed, there will be one last CentOS Linux 8 release — perhaps even after CentOS 8’s official EOL. After that, it’s all over for CentOS Linux.
What can you do now?
Well, you could try CentOS Stream, but it’s not the same thing. Classic CentOS was a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone. CentOS Stream, however, “tracks just ahead of a current RHEL release.” In other words, CentOS will no longer be a stable point distribution but a beta rolling release Linux distribution.
Why is that such a big deal? For years, experienced Linux users used CentOS for their Linux server. The vast majority of web and server-hosting companies offered CentOS as their default operating system. I run my own remote servers and websites on CentOS provided by TMDHosting.
I’m far from alone. Besides small businesses like mine, as MongoDB’s evangelist Matt Asay points out, “IBM’s consulting practice … for years told its customers to ‘just use CentOS.’ European fashion brands that would never countenance someone selling a knockoff of their uber-expensive bags run CentOS. The entire telecom infrastructure of China runs on CentOS. (Yes, really.) Facebook is CentOS-based, too.”
Top companies that have depended on CentOS Linux include Disney, GoDaddy, RackSpace, Toyota, and Verizon. Other important technology companies build products around CentOS. These include GE, Riverbed, F5, Juniper, and Fortinet.
CentOS was once everywhere. Now, it’s time for a change.
True, the previous CentOS version, CentOS 7, will be supported until June 30, 2024. But if you want the most up-to-date RHEL clone, well, you’ll soon be out of luck.
Now what?
First things first, you can’t just switch to CentOS Stream. Red Hat CTO Chris Wright came right out and said, “CentOS Stream isn’t a replacement for CentOS Linux.” He’s right. Red Hat sees CentOS Stream as a DevOps-friendly, continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) Linux. That’s great for developers — not so great for companies that want a stable RHEL-compatible Linux server or virtual machine (VM).
So here are your choices:
ALMALINUX
For many years, CentOS Linux was beloved by Linux-savvy system administrators. They could use it and get all of RHEL’s without paying for support, unless they really, really needed help. Now CloudLinux, a long-time CentOS supporter, is recreating the same model to support its RHEL clone, AlmaLinux.
AlmaLinux is a solid RHEL clone. Like its frenemy, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux walks in step with RHEL. For instance, AlmaLinux’s latest version is AlmaLinux 8.5, which is an exact copy of RHEL 8.5.
The AlmaLinux Foundation, the non-profit behind AlmaLinux, is also working on the open-source ELevate Project. This is an effort to enable migration between major versions of RHEL derivatives. So, for example, you’ll be able to easily move from CentOS 7.x to any RHEL 8.x clone.
ELevate does this by combining Red Hat’s Leapp framework with a community-created library and service for the required migration metadata set. This service, Package Evolution Service (PES), enables you to download, customize, and submit new data sets for packages. Users and maintainers can both use PES to help make migrations smooth and easy.
CloudLinux is offering multi-tiered support for AlmaLinux, which includes regular patches and updates for Linux kernel and core packages, patch delivery service-level agreements (SLA)s, and 24/7 incident support. In addition, Perforce is also offering commercial support for AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux.
AMAZON LINUX
Amazon Web Services (AWS) — which runs on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
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