[CentOS-devel] https://blog.centos.org/2020/12/future-is-centos-stream/

On 09/12/2020 15:51, Scott Dowdle wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
>> Any kernel device drivers, for a start. Kind of critical if your
>> SAS/RAID device wont boot, or your network device doesn't come up, or
>> your GUI doesn't start because your display drivers aren't compatible
>> anymore. Just minor things like that maybe?
> 
> If RHEL 8.4 works, and CentOS Stream 8.4+ makes a change that breaks something... that's what is going to become RHEL... so does it matter THAT much if it breaks a month or two earlier than in the past?  Now answering your question with a question, how about another?  Did you have much breakage as a result of EL minor updates?  I assume the answer is no... and if no is the case, then you shouldn't have much breakage with Stream.
> 
> TYL,
> 

Hi Scott,

WRT your first point - I would guess it matters to the user "if it 
breaks a month or two earlier" and they can't use their system until 
RHEL catches up and the two OSes converge in compatibility again.

To answer your second question, of the 50 or so 3rd party driver package 
I currently maintain for RHEL8, every single package broke due to 
changes in the kernel ABI between 8.2 and 8.3. So yes, I would expect a 
huge amount of breakage, especially in the early years (the very years 
Stream targets) where Red Hat is most active in backporting into the 
RHEL kernel. I would expect breakage to diminish as RHEL ages (e.g, 
years 5-10), so after active development ends, but that is kind of moot 
as Stream support has ended by then anyway. That's my experience of 
actively maintaining such packages for RHEL over a complete product 
cycle during the last 11-12 years.