[CentOS] Centos versions in the future?

Wed Apr 28 22:28:56 UTC 2021
Jonathan Billings <billings at negate.org>

> On Apr 27, 2021, at 11:32, Johnny Hughes <johnny at centos.org> wrote:
> 
> You would be hard pressed to find many FUNCTIONAL differences between
> Stream and CentOS Linux // just as you would be hard pressed to find
> many differences between RHEL 8.2 and RHEL 8.3, for example.
> 
> Are there some differences?  Sure.
> 
> If people don't want stream, then by all means , use something else.

This is true within the narrow scope of just CentOS/RHEL, but if, for example, you rely on ELrepo for kmods for hardware that Red Hat dropped support for, you’ll be sadly unable to use those kmods on Stream (elrepo isn’t supporting Stream[1]). 

There will also be inconsistencies with other third party repos and commercial software that focus exclusively on RHEL when Stream gets major version bumps ahead of RHEL. Certainly it will be an opportunity for those vendors to get their product working on Stream, so they’ll be prepared for the next RHEL release. 

But this is why people are calling it a beta test for RHEL. Yes, Steam running with only their core repos and software from within CentOS is tested and QA’d. But if you want to use Stream in a larger software context, be prepared for missing support and unexpected breakages. The only use I will consider Stream for will be as a test for upcoming RHEL releases, not as something I will ever want actual users to touch. (And maybe that’s ok)

1. http://elrepoproject.blogspot.com/2021/01/elrepo-and-centos-stream.html?m=1

--
Jonathan Billings