[CentOS-devel] Balancing the needs around the RHEL platform

Wed Dec 23 18:32:42 UTC 2020
Gordon Messmer <gordon.messmer at gmail.com>

On 12/22/20 11:57 PM, redbaronbrowser via CentOS-devel wrote:
> To reassure the community there is an FAQ with the following:
>
> > “CentOS Stream will be getting fixes and features ahead of RHEL. 
> Generally speaking we expect CentOS Stream to have fewer bugs and more 
> runtime features as it moves forward in time but always giving direct 
> indication of what is going into a RHEL release”
>
> This is a complete reversal on a fundamental concept stated earlier by 
> CentOS.  Previously the mission was to close the COMPATIBILITY gap by 
> *NOT* “extending or enhancing packages or features.”


At this point, I think you should be more clear than you are being.  
CentOS Stream will be getting features intended for RHEL, earlier than 
RHEL.  This creates a temporary forward compatibility gap.  RHEL might 
not run software that was compiled on CentOS Stream, until those new 
features actually appear in a later RHEL release.  This same 
compatibility gap exists between point releases of RHEL.  If you build 
an application on RHEL 7.8, for example, it might not run on RHEL 7.7.

On the other hand, CentOS Stream will be backward compatible with RHEL.  
Anything that runs on RHEL should continue running on CentOS Stream.


> But Red Hat is clever enough to rename “Rawhide” to “Stream” to make 
> it sound better.


No, Stream is not Rawhide.