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

On Tue, Dec 8, 2020 at 6:00 PM Pete Biggs <pete at biggs.org.uk> wrote:

> The problem is that we won't know if it will work.  When CentOS matched
> the RHEL point releases we knew that an RPM/driver targeted for RHEL
> 8.2 has a good chance of working on CentOS 8.2 - but that versioning
> match is lost with Stream. So vendors will either have to produce
> another version of their RPM for CentOS 8 Stream (and continuously
> check to see if it needs to be updated) or, more likely, just not
> bother to support CentOS.  It already happens - HPE won't support
> CentOS, but they do support RHEL and those RHEL RPMs work with CentOS.
> The only Linux they support is RHEL, so we're stuck with our HPE kit.
>

Cool, I understand where you're coming from.  If the world remained static
after this announcement I would be more concerned about this scenario.  As
it is, we're in a dynamic space, and CentOS Stream will be a place that
hardware vendors can participate as well.

> But I will absolutely say that the things they are rolling into RHEL 8.4
> > in a few months are not inherently less stable or less secure or
> > whatever else you want to call it .. when compared to other Linux
> distros.
>
> So instead of keeping everything back for a point release, the packages
> are set free once they are ready. Stream is a rolling release. And
> that's fine, but it's not what people thought they were getting when
> committing to CentOS. It has always been promoted as point release
> compatible with RHEL and that was it's main attraction to many people.
>

It's certainly a change.


> A separate question. Will a point release of RHEL 8.x be directly a
> snapshot of 8Stream on a specific date? Or will RedHat pick and choose
> which versions from 8Stream they put into 8.x? i.e. Would it be
> possible to clone the 8Stream tree on the date that, say, 8.6 is
> released and call it 8.6.stream - would 8.6 be the same as 8.6.stream
>

RHEL is developed according to a schedule that keeps us delivering minor
releases on a 6 month cadence.  That includes a period of time when we're
putting the finishing touches on one release and simultaneously working on
the next.  Folks on the CentOS Stream team can speak with more authority on
what the intended alignment points are (I know what makes sense from my
perspective, but there may be other considerations I'm unaware of).

-- 
Brendan Conoboy / Linux Project Lead / Red Hat, Inc.