Some announcements in the open source software world draw more backlash than others. It could be a significant change in business model, the premature retirement of a beloved project, or countless other changes. But unless it’s communicated perfectly (and with due consideration for organizations who will be opposed to the change) it’s likely to draw backlash.

The December 2020 announcement from the CentOS community and Red Hat regarding CentOS 8 end of life drew significant backlash – at least initially. The announcement, in addition to mothballing CentOS Linux in favor of CentOS Stream, also shortened the expected community support lifecycle for CentOS by eight years. And, with the new community support end of life coming this December, companies who saw CentOS 8 as a long-term, stable OS choice are now forced to consider their migration and support options.

Support Considerations

CentOS 8 community support ends in December. That means companies who want to stay on CentOS 8 need to find alternative means of supporting, patching, and, ultimately, securing their deployments. If they don’t, they risk un-patched vulnerabilities being exploited.

While the people who have contributed to CentOS Linux will still be around (after all, they will still be offering community support for CentOS 7 until June 2024) they will likely be focused on CentOS Stream going forward. That means relying on the community to source patches is unlikely to be fruitful or effective.

Without viable community support, enterprises must either support their deployments in house, or find a commercial support vendor. For CentOS, there’s no direct vendor support, meaning companies who want support from Red Hat would need to migrate their deployments to RHEL to get support.

Fortunately, there are companies that now offer paid extended long term support for CentOS 8, including OpenLogic by Perforce. This can extend the effective lifespan of CentOS 8 deployments and give organizations the time needed to acquire the resources needed for self-support or find a fitting migration path for their deployments.

Migration Options

For companies who have the time and resources available to migrate, there are plenty of viable options available.

Open Source Options

Similar Linux Distributions – There are a few emerging and established downstream RHEL distributions in the vein of CentOS Linux – including Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, Navy Linux, and others. Alternatively, those on CentOS 8 may consider a migration back to CentOS 7 to take advantage of the community support that runs until June 2024.

Upstream RHEL – If organizations are equipped to handle rolling releases for their OS, distributions like CentOS Stream can offer a viable migration path. However, many may be hesitant to continue working with a Red Hat distribution.

Other Open Source Distributions – If companies want to migrate away from the RHEL ecosystem, there are many proven distributions like OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, and others available. However, migrating to a new ecosystem can be more complicated, especially if applications are using libraries specific to the Linux distribution.
Commercial Options

RHEL – By focusing on the upstream CentOS Stream, Red Hat has simultaneously made their RHEL offering more open and anyone can see the changes and contributions going to RHEL. The benefit of migrating from CentOS to RHEL in this case is that the company stays in the same ecosystem. The downside, and one that drove adoption of CentOS Linux in the first place, is the price tag.

Other Commercial Options – Aside from RHEL, there are a variety of commercial distributions available, including SLES, Ubuntu Enterprise, and Amazon Linux. However, migrating into these ecosystems can present the same difficulties we discussed with their open source counterparts.

Final Thoughts

The changes to CentOS 8 end of life caught many companies off guard. Luckily, there are many options for support and/or migration that can keep companies secure and supported with minimal disruption.

If you want more information on the CentOS changes, or changes to open source software support in general, I’ll be giving a presentation on The Shifting Reality of Open Source Software Support at ATO on 1:00 pm ET on Tuesday, October 19. I hope to see you there!

I’ll also be at the the OpenLogic by Perforce virtual booth, so be sure to stop by if you want to chat about CentOS or other open source software.

Lastly, if you want to learn more about how OpenLogic supports open source software like CentOS, be sure to visit our website at www.openlogic.com.

Passionate about technology and open-source software, Javier Perez is Chief Evangelist of OSS and API Management for Perforce Software. He is responsible for technical thought leadership and advocacy for the open-source and API management portfolios.

Javier has been in the application development, open-source, cloud, app security, AI, SaaS, and mobile industries for 20+ years, and has had the opportunity to speak at industry events all over the world. Javier holds an honors degree in Computer Systems and an MBA.

The Featured Blog Posts series will highlight posts from partners and members of the All Things Open community leading up to the conference in October.