CentOS Sunsetting
CentOS is a Linux Distribution that was based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, that sought to provide high-grade enterprise infrastructure for servers, in an open-source and free model. However that has all changed.
The Major Distro is soon to go Dark
On June 30, 2024, the world of Enterprise Linux under the umbrella distribution Red Hat, changed forever as the CentOS version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux or RHEL reached the end of its life with CentOS 7 being the last live version.
What is the Best Course of Action?
There are 2 courses of action to take: staying on CentOS 7 or migrating to another distribution for your servers to migrate to before CentOS goes EOL (End of Life).
Staying on CentOS 7 comes with plenty of risks such as the lack of security support. This would require a full team of hands-on staff to ensure that the security needed for your infrastructure is provided.
Another option is to move to the RHEL distro, and start paying a fee for your server operating systems, along with the cost of support, maintenance and upgrading. This will be a more hefty investment since you will have to pay an upfront cost of migration, as well as the need for investment for the support, maintenance, and security of the distro itself.
What are the Alternatives?
There are a few distributions that are still free and open source that you can use if you intend on moving away from the RHEL path of distributions.
The three major players in the Server OS space that come to mind that are suitable for replacing Linux are Rocky Linux, Alma Linux and Ubuntu Server. Let’s dig deeper into each.
Rocky Linux
First up, we have Rocky Linux. A RHEL-based distribution run by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, that was formed in 2020 due to the announcement about the CentOS in favor of the now more proprietary model of CentOS Stream. It is an open-source and free Operating System patterned after the design of CentOS and is meant to be a successor to it.
Alma Linux
Second, we have Alma Linux. Alma Linux is run by Cloud Linux Inc., and similar to Rocky Linux, it is a RHEL-based distribution that is meant to be a successor to CentOS, also following a free and open-source model for the operating system.
Both Rocky Linux and Alma Linux are community supported and mostly community operated distributions with enterprise grade quality, as well as community and enterprise level support.
Ubuntu Server
Lastly, we have Ubuntu Server. Owned by Cannonical, Ubuntu Server is the server distribution based on the very popular Debian-based desktop Operating System, Ubuntu. Ubuntu, having such a wide community, has an extensive amount of community-based help available in forums and other sources.
