Centos.rip

Not knowing much about Linux distros, can anyone explain the popularity of CentOS to me?<p>I mean, having used it only a few times, my impression of CentOS is &quot;a Linux with lots of horribly outdated software, in the name of compatibility and well-testedness&quot;. Eg when I used it last, the PHP version it shipped with was 8 years old.<p>Now, I understand the appeal of that to certain super risk averse enterprises who value stability over any kind of developer or user happiness (including the ability to run latests versions of userland software that happens to require somewhat recent php&#x2F;python&#x2F;etc versions). But aren&#x27;t those exactly the kinds of enterprises that would want normal RHEL licenses anyway? If you scratch those out, what audience is left? Why would I run such ancient software for any technical reason?<p>I know this sounds dismissive, but I don&#x27;t know how else to formulate this and I&#x27;d like to understand this. I think I understand RHEL and I think I understand Fedora, but I never got the appeal of CentOS.

I appreciate the suggestions for alternative Linux server distros, and understand people asking about such, but CentOS wasn&#x27;t just another decent Linux server distro. It&#x27;s status as a direct rebuild of RHEL, crucially including robust binary compatibility, gave it a unique role. Ubuntu LTS, Alpine, Debian, etc are all fine distros but there&#x27;s a particular role for a very precise completely open and free RHEL clone.<p>Hopefully the same forces that lead to the creation of CentOS will Also lead to the establishment of a replacement project, and there are hopeful signs in that direction.

I think we all knew this was coming when IBM acquired RedHat.<p>Does anyone know if the licensing is permissive enough to enable Centos spin-offs? If that&#x27;s possible there&#x27;s a decent chance some company will jump on it and fill the void.

I&#x27;ve had to argue a lot of time at work on the merit of running a Debian system.<p>Everyone coming in has always been keen on just getting CentOS up for a server. Outside vendors also just tell me: &quot;we need CentOS X for this&quot;, and I&#x27;ve never understood the reason for that.<p>Having run both systems, I know that Debian is much more solid.<p>Sometimes the argument even comes down to: &quot;Oh but when I search online for guides, it&#x27;s always RedHat&#x2F;CentOS&quot;<p>It&#x27;s driving me mad sometimes.

That was a good laugh, thank you. Now it&#x27;s time to go back at freaking out.

This should really be called RIP RedHat tbh. They&#x27;ve just shot themselves in both feet.

My existential dread about this is worsened when I read suggestions that the best possible alternative is Oracle Linux...

Changing EoL to 2021 is absolutely unacceptable!<p>CentOS impressed me so much in the years I&#x27;ve been using it that I wanted to grab a RHCSE and start recommending subscriptions to my clients.<p>After pulling the rug out from under my feet I will no longer be interested in recommending anything under the Red Hat brand. We will migrate to another solution for our internal systems and not look back.

Being out of touch from the Linux distro world, this is rather sudden.<p>I still run CentOS on many of my dedicated servers (now known as bare-metal) from a decade ago. While almost everything else was all custom-built anyways, I guess the lack of core updates is going to be a problem. Though, CentOS 6 was going to reach EOL soon anyways.

I hope someone resurrects Whitebox Linux. I just liked the name and that it communicates litterally same thing as the other guy but cheaper since you aren’t paying for the brand.<p>Might be able to pun off of “President’s Choice” = “PC” = “Personal Computer” somehow as well.

What is the context behind this?

While this is super fun, can I get more informative link? I don&#x27;t follow Red Hat and for someone reason google is not helping me<p>Edit: Comment below beat me to it, nvm

We are creating the next RHEL based Enterprise Linux - same as CentOS used to be. Targeted first release is January 31, 2021.<p>Looking for both volunteers or people who want to be paid for their efforts. Join us to secure Enterprise Linux as a free (as in beer and freedom) for the foreseeable future.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;monkos.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;monkos.org</a>

The text is copied from when the Antergos distro told their users they would still get updates.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20190808223051&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;antergos.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;antergos-linux-project-ends&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20190808223051&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;antergos....</a>

I&#x27;m still keeping my fingers crossed for IBM to &quot;nudge&quot; (force?) RedHat to roll out a new distro named Red Hat Universal Blue Linux or RHUB Linux...Just so that i can use loads of awful Dad jokes related to linux and Rube Goldberg devices. (Disclaimer: I love me some linux tons, but love me some Dad jokes even more.)

I would advise anyone who&#x27;s using this as an opportunity to move on to greener pastures in terms of distributions to consider Alpine Linux: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;alpinelinux.org" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;alpinelinux.org</a><p>SourceHut runs entirely on Alpine, as do my personal workstations. It is extremely reliable, stable, and robust; maintainable over long periods of time with minimal effort; and small and simple enough to be easily understood by everyone responsible for its use on your teams. The package repositories are somewhat small - you may have to write some packages yourself, but don&#x27;t be afraid of that. It&#x27;s very easy and you would be well-advised to learn how it&#x27;s done if you&#x27;re going to invest in any distro.<p>I consider Alpine Linux to be a competitive advantage for my business. CentOS and RHEL provide the illusion of stability and an executive who will weep and beg for forgiveness when it breaks, but true stability is only possible through simplicity.

as a side note, the design of the parody centos.rip website is a pretty decent clean wordpress or other CMS template, if they didn&#x27;t build it by hand.

I was under the impression all these years that CentOS was not under RedHat supervision. Was I wrong, or did something change silently?

I hope IBM&#x2F;Redhat see how negatively this decision has been received and announce a reversal in the coming few days.

I&#x27;d love to know what the Red Hat employee are saying internally i am sure it&#x27;s a big shithole right know,

This strikes me as an infantile response to a sensible business move. We need to grow up, realize that the free lunch is over, and pay for what we value. And developers, including large companies, need to stop coddling us by offering us their best work for free.<p>Edit: &quot;We&quot; includes me; I should pay for more software too (not that I use any commercial software illegally; I only mean choosing paid products over free ones).

The writing&#x27;s been on the wall ever since IBM acquired RedHat, not to mention the fact that the Linux world is otherwise converging on Debian-derived distros.<p>I personally hope the Linux world converges. There are too many needless distributions whose only major difference is branding and a few file locations and other minor quibbling choices. There is absolutely no value in having both a Debian and RedHat&#x2F;CentOS in the world other than annoying people who want to distribute software for Linux by making them support two package managers.