Centos have announced that their RHEL8-based distro Centos8 will no longer be supported from December 2021.
This affects customers running Centos 8. It also affects customers running older Centos versions that are thinking updating to a newer distro.
There are many alternatives to consider. To mention a few:
Centos 7. With support until 2024. RimuHosting image available.
Rocky Linux https://rockylinux.org/ From the founder of the Centos project. Migration notes
RHEL 8. There were some licensing changes
Alma Linux https://almalinux.org/ From the team behind CloudLinux.
Centos Stream. https://www.centos.org/centos-stream/ This is a ‘rolling release’. The repository for this distro will receive new package versions over time. So rather than being on a particular ‘fixed release’ version of applications you will get updates to them over time. This is good if you wish to have them updated, and if you never want to have to reinstall a server. Bad if you rely on particular package versions.
Debian. RimuHosting image available. One of our favorite distros. Paired with our distrorejuve script you can easily upgrade (in place, without a reinstall) every few years to the latest Debian version.
Ubuntu. RimuHosting image available.
If you are currently running Centos 8, you can sit tight up until the December 2021 support cessation date and let the options mature and improve and delay making a decision.
If you are wanting to install a new VM and are open to non-RedHat based distros, then Debian is a great option.
If you are currently running Centos 8 and would like to switch to one of the alternative RHEL 8-based distros, you can follow the instructions to do that. Or contact our support and we can assist with that.
One response to “Centos announce Centos 8 retirement”
[…] its supported end-of-life for security updates. For a number of reasons there will effectively be no more stable releases of CentOS 8 or […]