Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of confusion surrounding Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) from Red Hat and its related distributions, such as AlmaLinux OS, Oracle Linux, and Rocky Linux. In addition to that, there are RHEL variants of Red Hat like CentOS Stream and Fedora. Let me help you clear things up.
RHEL, CentOS, Oracle: code cousins
For starters, all of these Linux distros are open source. This means that anyone – yes, even you – can take the source code and create their own RHEL-based distro. Beware, this is much easier said than done.
You can’t just download code from a Git repository and compile it. It would be far too easy. Since 2011, Red Hat has incorporated its own patches directly into its kernel tree. All the code is still there but, as we read at the time: “It’s a bit like asking for the family recipe for cookies, and you get cookie dough. This has not prevented code archaeologists, such as Oracle for example, from tracing RHEL into its Oracle Linux since 2006.
Some users chose Community Enterprise Operating system (CentOS), a community RHEL distro, instead of Oracle Linux. Developed by Gregory Kurtzer, this distro has been among the most successful RHEL clones. Indeed, CentOS has proven to be far more popular than RHEL in markets as critical as web servers.
Red Hat, customer support
Why ? It’s simple. CentOS does not cost a single penny. If you use RHEL for commercial purposes, you must pay a license fee. This is the most obvious difference. The more subtle difference, and the reason Red Hat became the first Linux company to make $1 billion (before IBM bought it for $34 billion) is that many companies need the support load that Red Hat provides to its RHEL customers.
Discover RHEL at RedHat
Surprisingly, RHEL doesn’t even have the majority market share on RHEL operating systems. Indeed, if you just need an RHEL-like operating system for something simple, like web or desktop servers, you can easily find system administrators who can get CentOS running without any outside help. As a result, many developers know how to build software within the RHEL family.
Red Hat knows it. So the company absorbed CentOS in 2014. CentOS continued down the free license path, while Red Hat hoped to persuade CentOS users to become RHEL customers. But it didn’t work.
CentOS Stream, the in-between
At the end of 2020, Red Hat therefore modified CentOS so that it was no longer a stable clone of RHEL, but a “rolling” Linux distro becoming CentOS Stream. In addition, Red Hat announced the end of support for CentOS 7 in 2024. This decision was very badly received by the community.
A free version of RHEL with community support
- Downloads: 28
- Release date : 11/18/2020
- Author : CentOS Project
- Licence : Free software
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Operating system - Operating system : Online service All internet browsers
As one user points out, “CentOS’ use case is completely different from CentOS Stream’s. Many, many people use CentOS in the enterprise for production, not development. CentOS Stream may be fine for dev/test, but people are unlikely to adopt CentOS Stream for production.”
Discover CentOS Stream
Nevertheless, Chris Wright, the CTO of Red Hat, claims that “CentOS Stream is stable enough for production”. According to him, “CentOS Stream now sits between the innovation embodied by Fedora and the production stability of RHEL”.
I take it CentOS Stream is stable enough for adventurous companies that prioritize new features over guaranteed rock-solid stability. Fedora, of course, remains Red Hat’s Community Linux for developers and users who want to be at the forefront of the RHEL family.
AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux: for those nostalgic for CentOS
What place does this leave for the disappointed CentOS Stream suddenly? For them, there are two great choices: AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux.
Remember when I said people were upset with the evolution of CentOS Stream? Two prominent Linux developers, Igor Seletskiy, founder and CEO of CloudLinux, and Gregory Kurtzer, founder and CEO of CentOS CIQ, decided to react by creating new clones of RHEL. Both decided that the old CentOS should be reborn.
As Igor Seletskiy explained at the time, “The demise of the stable version of CentOS left a very significant void in the Linux community, which prompted CloudLinux to step in and launch an alternative to CentOS”. CloudLinux, for those unfamiliar, is a commercial clone of RHEL, but it’s designed specifically for Linux web hosting. AlmaLinux is a free community Linux.
Rocky Linux is managed by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF). According to Gregory Kurtzer, the idea is that “open source projects should not be subject to corporate control or commercial logic”. “What makes an open source project successful is not having a single individual behind it – or even having a large company behind it – what makes it successful is having many individuals and many companies that support and manage it collectively, based on common interests. This has been our goal with Rocky Linux and the RESF since day one. The RESF Charter and Bylaws reflect our intent that neither Rocky Linux nor any other RESF project will ever be controlled, purchased, or directed in any way by any single entity or individual. he.
Discover Rocky Linux
Today, both groups offer support for their RHEL clones, but you don’t need to pay a dime to use them basic. “Support is the most important offering in our open source product line. We can offer several support models, but the one that is most appreciated is the one that allows better support than what is currently available,” argues Gregory Kurtzer.
Both organizations are also working to match their releases with those of Red Hat. So Red Hat released RHEL 8.7 and RHEL 9.1 in November. AlmaLinux 8.7, AlmaLinux 9.1, Rocky Linux 8.7 and Rocky Linux 9.1 followed closely.
Conclusion
So what is the right solution for you? It depends on your needs.
If you need serious support, RHEL has a case. If your business is Oracle-based, you might as well use Oracle Linux.
Then I would advise against CentOS Stream for production. But if you need the latest Linux features and have some expertise, go for it. If you’re a developer and like to live with the latest, choose Fedora. But don’t use it on production servers.
Fedora is a free and open source operating system based on a Linux kernel. You can install it on any PC instead of Windows or in dual boot to have both systems.
- Downloads: 20
- Release date : 11/15/2022
- Author : Fedora Project
- Licence : Free software
- Categories:
Operating system - Operating system : linux
Finally, if you and your team cut your teeth on the old CentOS, AlmaLinux or Rocky Linux are great choices. Personally, I upgrade my servers from CentOS 7 to Rocky Linux 8.7.
Source: ZDNet.com