Oracle Linux Looking To Attract CentOS Users Looking For Alternatives

In light of this week's major bombshell that CentOS 8 is being EOL'ed next year and CentOS focusing on "CentOS Stream" as the upstream to RHEL, Oracle is hoping at least some of those frustrated CentOS users will transition to Oracle Linux.

Oracle Linux has been tracking RHEL upstream and with their Red Hat Compatible Kernel is quite close to the vanilla RHEL/CentOS state. Oracle does offer support services around Oracle Linux but the distribution itself is available as a free download. Lately, Oracle Linux has been quicker in re-basing against new RHEL releases than CentOS itself. Hence why in our article earlier this week about CentOS 8 going away, Oracle Linux is worth mentioning as an alternative.

In looking to court CentOS users looking for alternatives, there is an Oracle blog post out today welcoming those to this Linux distribution. The reasons promoted as why one should consider Oracle Linux is that it's free to download/use/distribute, it's been around since 2006, it's compatible and enhanced, and designed for all workloads across x86 and ARM. As for the Oracle Linux enhancements, it's primarily around the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel that also tracks a more recent stable series (currently, Linux 5.4) compared to RHEL.

If you are thinking of giving Oracle Linux a go, more details can be found on the Oracle Linux blog.

Meanwhile this week did bring the announcement of Rocky Linux and other initiatives that want to fill the void left by CentOS going Stream-only, but we'll wait and see how those other community-based spins pan out over the coming year. We're also suspecting Red Hat will be introducing a lower-price, self-service subscription tier as well to help address CentOS users but for now they have not made any announcements.