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As you know, after IBM acquired RedHat , IBM shocked the Linux community by killing CentOS 8 stable . There will be no CentOS Linux. Red Hat announced that there would only be CentOS Stream, which will serve as a rolling release and will be used as the next RHEL. Now we have a possible alternative called Rocky Linux.
CentOS Linux is reborn as Rocky Linux
I think Red Hat and IBM underestimated the Linux community. Did they believe they could get away with a significant change? How did they not see it coming? I think IBM and Red Hat don't care about open source anymore. They went ahead and removed a lot of things from the CentOS wiki as well:
According to Ars , CentOS co-founder Greg Kurtzer is one of many community members who are unhappy with Red Hat's decision to shut down CentOS Linux . Kurtzer issued the following press release on Wednesday:
I was as shocked as the rest of the community by the Red Hat news. When I started CentOS 16 years ago, I never imagined the incredible reach and impact it would have around the world on individuals and businesses who rely on CentOS for Linux distribution. In response to this unexpected change, I am proud to announce the launch of a new project, Rocky Linux
I'll treat CentOS Stream as beta or development software. I'd rather use Arch Linux or Debian testing than deal with these IBM shenanigans. I firmly believe that both Ubuntu/Debian and SUSE/OpenSUSE will gain market share. Here are the percentages of websites using various Linux subcategories (distributions):
What is the Rocky Linux Project?
From the project website :
Rocky Linux is a community business operating system designed to be 100% bug-by-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux now that CentOS has changed direction. It is undergoing intense community development. Rocky Linux is led by Gregory Kurtzer, founder of the CentOS project. There is no expected arrival time for a release. Contributors are encouraged to contact using the communication options offered on this site.
CloudLinux, but alternative and RHEL 8 fork for CentOS 8 users
According to Wikipedia , CloudLinux OS is a Linux distribution marketed by shared hosting providers. It is developed by the software company CloudLinux, Inc. The CloudLinux operating system is based on the CentOS operating system. In a blog post , they also announced the RHEL 8 fork:
We already maintain the CloudLinux operating system, plan to release a free, open source, community driven, 1: 1 binary compatible fork of RHEL® 8 (and future versions) in Q2021 8. We will create a separate, totally free fork Fully binary operating system compatible with RHEL® XNUMX (and future versions). We will sponsor the development and maintenance of this operating system. We will work to create a community around the operating system, with the board of directors of the community members.
summing up
IBM now owns Red Hat software. So, they're trying to milk every penny of their purchase . I expect IBM to make a huge price shift on Red Hat-owned software like RHEL, Ansible, Red Hat Virtualization, OpenStack, JBoss Enterprise, and other apps. They'll use corporate lawyers to enforce even stricter licensing for RHEL and make it unlikely anyone will fork Red Hat Enterprise Linux anytime soon. I look forward to seeing Rocky Linux as CentOS's successor and wish them luck, as it takes time to rebuild goodwill and brand recognition in the open source world.
Would you use Rocky Linux once it's released?
We leave you a short but eloquent video from MorroLinux which sums up the problem well.
