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I'm using CentOS for quite a few production environments, just updated everything to version 8 and this got me very worried.
However after doing a bit of research, while not happy, I'm no longer worried about this change. I'll try to explain, using simple language, what this whole thing is about.
The biggest mistake Red Hat is making here, is the way they label things. Calling it "CentOS Stream", "rolling-release" and referring to it almost everywhere without mentioning the version number is downright misleading and confusing. Especially "rolling-release". When Linux people hear this, they think Arch.
CentOS Stream 8 is the next MINOR version of RHEL, so just ever so slightly newer. If RHEL is at version 8.2 then CentOS will be at version 8.3. It will be both binary and backwards compatible, there will be no major package updates and it's not "unstable". Support for CentOS Stream 8 will be exactly the same as the support for RHEL 8, which means until the end of 2029. When CentOS Stream 9 and RHEL 9 are released it will be the same. All active development will still be in the nightly channel.
Stream will be in this middle ground between Stable and Testing which will apparently be called... Stream.
The reason they do this, is because it would make it a whole lot easier for third parties to integrate their solutions and introduce new hardware support for both CentOS and RHEL. For example if a manufacturer like DELL releases a new server (and wants it to be RH certified) and there is something that has to be included in the kernel for the OS to gain support for it, then CentOS Stream will be the first stable OS where the update will land. After 6 months, the updates will be moved to RHEL as the next minor version and the cycle will repeat.
So, in short, Stream is nothing like Fedora, Debian Testing or Arch. The closest equivalent that I can think of, is Debian Stable with the "backports" repo enabled.
This will not affect most of the use-cases for CentOS BUT indeed some people will have to make some changes of how they think and use CentOS.
The good news is that for production environments (that use containers), we will be able to use the "Red Hat Universal Base Images". Those are RHEL but stripped and optimized for containers, do not require any subscription and are free to redistribute. From what I can see they are the perfect general purpose container for building a software solution and deploying it to production.
So in my case (and for people in my situation), it will be like upgrading production to RHEL for free, while still having CentOS as the perfect Development/Workstation OS.
The problem is for people who use mission-critical traditional server environments and really need the most stable possible, least changing OS. Most of these people are already using RHEL or some other paid Enterprise-grade OS, so not that big of a deal. Those who do not will either have to update to RHEL, switch to Oracle Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise or Debian. Can't think of any other big and reliable distro.
That being said, I do still have a problem with how they are handling the situation. CentOS Linux 8 was delivered with the promise of being supported for 10 years until 2029 and now suddenly they cut it's support by the end of next year. Also, I do see why they are focusing on CentOS Stream and I support it, as it is a step in the right direction, but I fail to see why there can't be a regular RHEL-level CentOS release.
However after doing a bit of research, while not happy, I'm no longer worried about this change. I'll try to explain, using simple language, what this whole thing is about.
The biggest mistake Red Hat is making here, is the way they label things. Calling it "CentOS Stream", "rolling-release" and referring to it almost everywhere without mentioning the version number is downright misleading and confusing. Especially "rolling-release". When Linux people hear this, they think Arch.
CentOS Stream 8 is the next MINOR version of RHEL, so just ever so slightly newer. If RHEL is at version 8.2 then CentOS will be at version 8.3. It will be both binary and backwards compatible, there will be no major package updates and it's not "unstable". Support for CentOS Stream 8 will be exactly the same as the support for RHEL 8, which means until the end of 2029. When CentOS Stream 9 and RHEL 9 are released it will be the same. All active development will still be in the nightly channel.
Stream will be in this middle ground between Stable and Testing which will apparently be called... Stream.
The reason they do this, is because it would make it a whole lot easier for third parties to integrate their solutions and introduce new hardware support for both CentOS and RHEL. For example if a manufacturer like DELL releases a new server (and wants it to be RH certified) and there is something that has to be included in the kernel for the OS to gain support for it, then CentOS Stream will be the first stable OS where the update will land. After 6 months, the updates will be moved to RHEL as the next minor version and the cycle will repeat.
So, in short, Stream is nothing like Fedora, Debian Testing or Arch. The closest equivalent that I can think of, is Debian Stable with the "backports" repo enabled.
This will not affect most of the use-cases for CentOS BUT indeed some people will have to make some changes of how they think and use CentOS.
The good news is that for production environments (that use containers), we will be able to use the "Red Hat Universal Base Images". Those are RHEL but stripped and optimized for containers, do not require any subscription and are free to redistribute. From what I can see they are the perfect general purpose container for building a software solution and deploying it to production.
So in my case (and for people in my situation), it will be like upgrading production to RHEL for free, while still having CentOS as the perfect Development/Workstation OS.
The problem is for people who use mission-critical traditional server environments and really need the most stable possible, least changing OS. Most of these people are already using RHEL or some other paid Enterprise-grade OS, so not that big of a deal. Those who do not will either have to update to RHEL, switch to Oracle Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise or Debian. Can't think of any other big and reliable distro.
That being said, I do still have a problem with how they are handling the situation. CentOS Linux 8 was delivered with the promise of being supported for 10 years until 2029 and now suddenly they cut it's support by the end of next year. Also, I do see why they are focusing on CentOS Stream and I support it, as it is a step in the right direction, but I fail to see why there can't be a regular RHEL-level CentOS release.
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