CentOS 8 is end-of-life: Now what? There were many reasons people came to use CentOS as an alternative Linux platform to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). CentOS was originally built as a downstream release of RHEL. It was free to use without support. CentOS became the de facto standard for many organizations that did not want to use RHEL for production workload. It’s basically the same thing after all, just rebranded.
While CentOS was originally a community project, over time Red Hat began contributing substantially and eventually took over maintenance of the linux Variant. This allowed them to shift the direction of the CentOS project, much to the dismay of its users — especially those who rely on it for their production workloads.
With the shift to “Stream,” Red Hat has moved CentOS 8 from being a downstream release (built after RHEL) to an upstream release (built before RHEL). This means that instead of a stabilized release, CentOS Stream is now somewhat of a development/QA release, which is unacceptable for production system use across most organizations.
With all the vulnerabilities in the wild, it’s simply not an option to leave these systems as-is. There are several options available including re-installation to a new OS, updating to CentOS Stream 8, or migration to another downstream RHEL variant (of which there are many available today).
CentOS 8 is end-of-life: Now what? Read the whole article here …