[BlueOnyx:24568] Re: End of life of Centos 8?

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Neil,

> Just read an article that suggests strongly that RedHat are planning on
> killing off Centos 8 in 2021 <tel:2021> and push people onto something
> called Centos Stream - which sounds like a "test ground" for RedHat
> fixes....
> 
> (Can't post a link to the story I'm afraid)

Yeah, I've been following that news for the last four hours since it
popped onto my radar. We've started discussing it on the BlueOnyx
developer list as well.

Here is what we know so far:

YESTERDAY the CentOS.org page still said that CentOS 8 would be
supported until May 31, 2029.

Well, that was yesterday.

Today's news is:

"CentOS Linux 8, as a rebuild of RHEL 8, will end at the end of 2021."

The full message is here:

https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2020-December/048208.html

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[CentOS-announce] CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream

Rich Bowen
rbowen at redhat.com

Tue Dec 8 14:08:05 UTC 2020

Previous message: [CentOS-announce] Release for CentOS Linux 8 (2011)
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

The future of the CentOS Project is CentOS Stream, and over the next
year we’ll be shifting focus from CentOS Linux, the rebuild of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux (RHEL), to CentOS Stream, which tracks just ahead of a
current RHEL release. CentOS Linux 8, as a rebuild of RHEL 8, will end
at the end of 2021. CentOS Stream continues after that date, serving as
the upstream (development) branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Meanwhile, we understand many of you are deeply invested in CentOS Linux
7, and we’ll continue to produce that version through the remainder of
the RHEL 7 life cycle.
https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/#Life_Cycle_Dates

CentOS Stream will also be the centerpiece of a major shift in
collaboration among the CentOS Special Interest Groups (SIGs). This
ensures SIGs are developing and testing against what becomes the next
version of RHEL. This also provides SIGs a clear single goal, rather
than having to build and test for two releases. It gives the CentOS
contributor community a great deal of influence in the future of RHEL.
And it removes confusion around what “CentOS” means in the Linux
distribution ecosystem.

When CentOS Linux 8 (the rebuild of RHEL8) ends, your best option will
be to migrate to CentOS Stream 8, which is a small delta from CentOS
Linux 8, and has regular updates like traditional CentOS Linux releases.
If you are using CentOS Linux 8 in a production environment, and are
concerned that CentOS Stream will not meet your needs, we encourage you
to contact Red Hat about options.

We have an FAQ - https://centos.org/distro-faq/ - to help with your
information and planning needs, as you figure out how this shift of
project focus might affect you.

[See also: Red Hat's perspective on this.
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/centos-stream-building-innovative-future-enterprise-linux]
----------------------------------------------------------------

And here is the FAQ where they sugar coat the kiss of death:

https://centos.org/distro-faq/


What does this mean for us and for 5210R in particular:
==========================================================

First of all: We're not the only ones who depend on a trustworthy 1:1
open source rebuild/fork of RHEL. Many other projects do so as well.

CentOS was started by Lance Davis, Gregory Kurtzer and Rocky McGaugh and
their initial release was in 2004. As is with such projects, they
evolved, leadership shifted and none of these three have been with the
CentOS project for quite some time. Instead it was governed by the
CentOS Governing Board and and in 2014 ownership of CentOS was even
transferred back to RedHat. Which now employs most of the CentOS head
developers.

And they just made the business decision that turns CentOS 8 from a
stable RHEL8 clone into a test-bed for future RHEL8 technologies. In
other words: After 2021 we can say bye-bye stability and "welcome to the
minefield of half-assed ideas and implementations".

With current and older CentOS released we had sort of a guarantee that
something compiled on (say) CentOS 6.0 would still run fine 8-9 years
later on CentOS 6.10 when the whole OS went EOL. This guarantee is now
out of the window for CentOS 8 when it becomes "CentOS Stream".

As we're not the only ones "miffled" about this shoddy and short sighted
treatment by RedHat/CentOS we should be able to see alternatives pop up
soonish.


In any case:
=============

Don't worry about 5210R.
-------------------------

We're good. Until the end of 2021 you won't see any drastic changes.

Before the end of 2021 we will have narrowed down which path we'll take
with 5210R and we're currently considering several options that will
make sure that existing (and future) installs of 5210R will be usable
long beyond the end of 2021 and ideally until the originally promised
EOL of May 31, 2029.

And like mentioned above: We're not the only ones whom RedHat pulled the
rug out from under our feet.

In fact Gregory Kurtzer (co-founder of CentOS) had this to say:

> I am considering creating another rebuild of RHEL and may even be able
> to hire some people for this effort. If you are interested in helping,
> please join the HPCng slack (link on the website hpcng.org).
>
> Greg (original founder of CentOS)

The Slack discussion channels where he's organizing a CentOS reboot
under a new name has (in just a few hours) already assembled quite an
illustrious group of co-conspirators and they're in the process of
hammering out the details. It looks like the name "RockyLinux" has
already been decided on, honoring the deceased co-founder of CentOS,
Rocky McGaugh. We'll have to wait and see where this goes.

But like said: There is currently a lot of justified outrage over this
outright betrayal by RedHat and it affects so many other open source and
commercial projects that this *will* result in alternatives. One way or
another.

At the worst: BlueOnyx 5210R depends only on a limited subset of RPMs
from the CentOS 8 / RHEL8 repos. If push came to shove, then I'd be
prepared and ready to decouple 5210R from the CentOS 8 repositories and
would serve all OS related updates out of the 5210R-OS-Updates
repository by doing rebuilds of RHEL8 SRPMS. But this won't be necessary
until the new projected EOL of CentOS 8 at the end of 2021.

Ideally: Once a suitable and promising challenger emerges that 1:1
replaces CentOS 8 w/o reinstall we'll simply publish a BlueOnyx YUM
update that switches 5210R from using the CentOS repos over to the repos
of the new OS that serves as a drop in replacement of CentOS 8.

So let's wait a bit and see how the dices fall. The next couple of days
and perhaps weeks will tell, but one way or another we'll get 5210R to
the originally projected EOL of May 31, 2029.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber