Hi,
I've quickly made an incomplete list of the RHEL and clones/forks landscape to see what the current situation is. The interesting question will be how this will change in the coming years and how it affects Red Hat/IBM and the Linux users in general.
RHEL ("The Original", quasi Gold standard until June 2023) CentOS Stream (rolling RHEL next) Oracle Linux (almost 1:1 rebuild with own patches, adds own packages) Rocky Linux (tries to be 1:1 rebuild) AlmaLinux (ABI compatible rebuild) EuroLinux (status unknown) Springdale Linux (status unknown) Navy Linux (status unknown) SUSE RHEL fork (status unknown)
For me it's clear that RHEL and certain clones/forks are here to stay. Large enterprises or institutions like CERN and Fermilab will continue to use RHEL and their favorite rebuild. Whoever likes it or not. The same goes for a lot of SMEs and private users.
It will be interesting to see what turns out to be the new Gold standard. " Personally I expect we may see not one, but two Gold standards in the future. To run commercial applications, RHEL will stay the Gold standard. To run all kind open source software, one of the clones/forks may be the winner. Red Hat may also be attacked in the commercial space by Oracle and other commercial players.
I can't predict the future but my feeling is that AlmaLinux has a good chance to become the second Gold standard.
To those who call my discussion OT, let me say this: CentOS has brought us into the current situation. Bear with us as we find our way out of this trap.
I'm interested to hear some other ideas before I leave.
Thanks, Simon