I found it quite easy to convert to Stream from a CentOS 8 'traditional'
installation (I have never been able to install Stream from ISO without
running into problems), so should I ever need to rebuild my server, I'd
repeat that exercise. Failing that, I'd probably be exploring the Oracle
Linux road.
Thanks
Jamie
------ Original Message ------
From: "Andy Smith" <andy@???>
To: users@???
Sent: 28/10/2021 00:08:30
Subject: [bitfolk] Where do current CentOS users want to go after CentOS
8 EOL?
>Hello,
>
>As you may or may not be aware, CentOS 8's EOL is 31 December 2021,
>i.e. just over 2 months from now. After that date, Red Hat expects
>CentOS 8 users to switch to CentOS 8 Stream or to a Red Hat
>Enterprise Linux product.
>
>At the moment BitFolk supports the self-install of CentOS 8 and that
>is going to be in-place upgradeable to CentOS 8 Stream. And that's
>it. That is the current extent of your choices for RHEL-like.
>
>If you're a current CentOS 8 user what do you think you're going to
>want to be using after it goes EOL?
>
>It seems likely that there will be demand for CentOS 8 Stream and
>later Stream releases, so we'll continue supporting those as best
>we can¹.
>
>RHEL itself is now free for use on up to 16 production systems, as
>long as you sign up with Red Hat for an Individual Developer
>subscription:
>
>https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/new-year-new-red-hat-enterprise-linux-programs-easier-ways-access-rhel#Bookmark%201
>https://developers.redhat.com/rhel8
>
>We don't currently support the install of that, but if people want
>it then we would. You install it like CentOS and then have to put in
>your subscription details once it's booted. The same change of
>installer and kernel would be necessary since it sees unlikely that
>Red Hat are going to back down from disabling everything except KVM.
>That does mean that you may not be able to get Red Hat to provide
>you with any support ("come back when it's booted using our
>kernel").
>
>As far as CentOS replacement projects go, Rocky Linux and
>Alma Linux have come to my attention. They aren't currently
>supported but could be. They don't intend to drift much from RHEL's
>settings so they will also require alternate installers and kernels.
>
>Oracle Linux's installer and kernel continues to support Xen, it is
>free for use (charges for support) and otherwise aims to be
>binary-compatible with RHEL, like CentOS did. I get a little bit
>sick in my own mouth at the idea of working with Oracle, but if
>there's paying customers who don't then we will enable that.
>
>So what do you CentOS users want to do?
>
>Cheers,
>Andy
>
>¹ Red Hat goes out of their way to disable other virtualisation
> methods than their own product, KVM. This means that you can't
> currently install or run CentOS/RHEL 8 or later under Xen using
> their packaged installer or kernel. It is only possible using the
> third party kernel-ml package. Red Hat are the only major Linux
> vendor to take this stance and as such we can't promise to always
> be able to go against their intentions.
>
>https://strugglers.net/~andy/blog/2021/02/03/booting-the-centosrhel-installer-under-xen-pvh-mode/
>
>--
>https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting
