Which of the following are binary compatible Linux distributions which are free alternatives to Red Hat Enterprise Linux RHEL?

Background information

On December 8, 2020, CentOS announced that they would be shifting focus from CentOS Linux, the rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), to CentOS Stream. For more information, see CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream. The following section describes the EOL plans of different CentOS Linux releases:

• CentOS Linux 7, as a rebuild of RHEL 7, no longer receives updates from CentOS as of August 6, 2020, and will reach its EOL on June 30, 2024.
• CentOS Linux 8, as a rebuild of RHEL 8, had its lifecycle cut short and reached its EOL on December 31, 2021.
• CentOS Linux 9 and later versions are not provided. CentOS Stream is provided instead.

Impacts

If you are using CentOS Linux, take note of the following items:

• If you are using CentOS 8, you no longer receive software maintenance or technical support such as bug fixes and feature updates as of January 1, 2022.
• If you are using CentOS 7, you will no longer receive software maintenance or technical support such as bug fixes and feature updates as of July 1, 2024.

Since the lifecycle of CentOS Linux 8 has been cut short, CentOS provides the following options for CentOS Linux 8 users. If you are using CentOS Linux 8 in a development or test environment, you can migrate to CentOS Stream. If you are using CentOS Linux 8 in a production environment or to deploy critical business, you can migrate to RHEL. If you want to use CentOS Stream or RHEL, take note of the following items:

• CentOS Stream is a rolling release distribution of CentOS rather than a rebuild of RHEL. Its stability and compatibility cannot be guaranteed. If CentOS Stream is used in a production environment, risks cannot be predicted.
• RHEL images are not provided for free, and you must subscribe to the images before you can use them. We recommend that you estimate the costs before you migrate to RHEL.
• CentOS Linux EOL affects the public images and support provided by Alibaba Cloud in the following aspects:
  • Alibaba Cloud will continue to provide CentOS 8 images. Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances that were created from CentOS 8 images are not affected. However, Alibaba Cloud will no longer update these images. For more information, see Release notes for 2022.
  • The Alibaba Cloud support cycles of CentOS operating systems are consistent with the lifecycles of the official CentOS operating systems. CentOS discontinues support for CentOS Linux 8 as of January 1, 2022, and will discontinue support for CentOS Linux 7 as of July 1, 2024.

For more information about the CentOS Project shifts, see FAQ - CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream.

You can replace CentOS Linux with a suitable operating system or migrate away from CentOS Linux. Alibaba Cloud provides public images that contain a variety of operating systems. You can select a suitable operating system to replace CentOS Linux. The following table describes different operating systems and their intended users.

• If you do not want to retain system disk data, you can use any of the operating systems described in the following table to replace CentOS Linux. For more information, see Replace the operating system of an instance.
• If you want to retain system disk data and minimize service downtime, use Server Migration Center (SMC) to migrate away from CentOS Linux. SMC supports the following migrations:
  • Migrate CentOS 7 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 or Anolis OS 7.
  • Migrate CentOS 8 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 or Anolis OS 8.
  For more information, see Migrate operating systems.

References

• End of support for operating systems
• Release notes for 2022
• Image FAQ