Red hat linux and centos

What is CentOS?

CentOS is an open source project that releases 2 distinct Linux® distributions, CentOS Stream and CentOS Linux. CentOS Stream is the upstream development platform for upcoming Red Hat® Enterprise Linux product releases.

The CentOS Project will discontinue updates and releases of CentOS Linux® between 2021 and 2024. This means current CentOS Linux users will need to choose a migration path. Updates for CentOS Linux 8 ended in December 2021, and updates for CentOS Linux 7 will end on June 30, 2024

The CentOS naming convention

CentOS stands for Community ENTerprise Operating System. It’s an acronym used in the names of the open source community, multiple working groups, and 2 Linux distros.

CentOS

When referred to by itself, CentOS is the project, the community of people who participate in it, and everything enabling them to work on CentOS project outputs. Red Hat, Almalinux, CloudLinux, and AWS all contribute to this community.

CentOS SIGs

CentOS special interest groups (CentOS SIGs) are smaller groups within the CentOS project that manage specific components within—or uses of—the Linux distros. CentOS SIGs can be focused on storage, virtualization, cloud computing, and more.

CentOS Stream

A Linux distro that is the upstream development platform for upcoming Red Hat® Enterprise Linux product releases.

CentOS Linux

A Linux distro derived from source code released by Red Hat. The CentOS Project will discontinue updates and releases of CentOS Linux between 2021 and 2024.

CentOS Stream vs. CentOS Linux

Both are open source Linux distros, versions of CentOS, and part of the overall enterprise Linux ecosystem. CentOS Stream serves as the open source development platform for upcoming releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. CentOS Stream is what will become Red Hat Enterprise Linux, while CentOS Linux is derived from source code released by Red Hat. Historically, each version of CentOS Linux reflected major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux—both used the RPM package manager system and maintained similar functionality, compatibility, and bug fixes.

CentOS Stream tracks just ahead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases and is continuously delivered as the source code that will become minor releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. CentOS Stream makes Red Hat Enterprise Linux developmental source code available so that community members have a place to contribute and test code in tandem with Red Hat Enterprise Linux engineers. Its community members—along with Red Hat partners and ecosystem developers—can download, adapt, submit patches, and suggest changes that could be included in the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

CentOS Linux is downstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux—most often used for development and deployment—and doesn’t have a contribution model. Updates to CentOS Linux will discontinue between 2021 and 2024.

Including the Fedora project, the open source development cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is:

1. Fedora: The upstream project on which future Red Hat Enterprise Linux major releases are based.
2. CentOS Stream: A preview of upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux minor versions.
3. Red Hat Enterprise Linux: The official, hardened, and fully supported enterprise operating system product.
4. CentOS Linux: A community-supported and -produced Linux distro derived from source code released by Red Hat , scheduled to be discontinued between 2021-2024.

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) VS CentOS

Every day, somewhere in the world, a server administrator has to explain to a CFO the difference between Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and CentOS because the two Linux distributions look shockingly similar, but one is free and the other one is not. If you have been in that position yourself or are not sure how you would answer if a CFO or someone you know asked you about the difference between RHEL and CentOS, this article is for you. By the end of it, you will know everything you need to know about RHEL and CentOS and be able to choose between them depending on your needs.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

RHEL started in 2000 as a Linux distribution targeted toward the commercial market. The distribution is currently available in five server versions (for x86, x86-64, Itanium, PowerPC and IBM System z) and two desktop versions (for x86 and x86-64).

Although the source code of RHEL is freely available, Red Hat restricts the redistribution of their officially supported versions of RHEL. To deploy RHEL on a server or workstation, one has to purchase a subscription from Red Hat and renew it every year.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscriptions start at $349 per year without any support from Red Hat. With one year of Standard support, the price jumps to $799 per year, and one year of Premium support increases it further, to $1,299 per year.

Standard support is available only during Red Hat’s business hours, which are either 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM local time for North America or 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for outside of North America. Red Hat’s initial and ongoing response times with Standard support range from 1 business hour to 2 business day, depending on the severity of the issue. Premium support is available around the clock for Severity 1 and 2 issues, which include problems that severely impact the use of the software in a production environment and problems where the software is functioning but its functionality in a production environment is severely reduced.

With each Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription, customers can also purchase various add-ons, including extended update support, resilient storage, high availability, or smart management. One year of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server with all add-ons included costs around $3,000 per year.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Workstation

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Workstation comes with all Red Hat Enterprise Linux Add-Ons, access to Red Hat Software Collections, and the entire Red Hat Developer Toolset, and it costs either $299 per year with developer support that includes an unlimited number of incidents and a 2-business-day response service level agreement, or $449 per year with developer support that includes an unlimited number of incidents and a 4-business-hour response service level agreement.

CentOS

CentOS is short for Community Enterprise Operating System, and this Linux distribution was initially released in 2004 as RHEL derivative. CentOS is free and community-supported, and it maintains compatibility with RHEL. Since 2014, CentOS has joined Red Hat but remained independent from RHEL.

“This collaboration strengthens Red Hat’s proven business model by extending the Red Hat open source development ecosystem. Red Hat anticipates that taking a role as a catalyst within the CentOS community will enable it to accelerate development of enterprise-grade subscription solutions for customers and partners, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Red Hat JBoss Middleware, OpenShift by Red Hat, and Red Hat Storage,” Red Hat stated in an official announcement.

According to its developers, the CentOS project offers a consistent manageable platform that suits a wide variety of deployments. CentOS ISOs can be downloaded directly from the official website or via Torrent. CentOS also provides images for Amazon, Google, and self-hosted cloud.

Choosing Between Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CentOS

By now, the difference between RHEL and CentOS should be clear: RHEL is an enterprise-grade Linux distribution with commercial support, and CentOS is a free and community-supported Linux distribution whose purpose is to drive forward development and adoption of next-generation open source projects.

Those who want the security and support that comes with a certified platform should choose RHEL, while those who work on open source projects and need an open platform with selectively-updated components should choose CentOS.

“If you intend to deploy an enterprise-grade supported OpenStack platform optimized to pair with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, then Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform is the industry-leading solution,” Red Hat states in its CentOS FAQ.

It is worth noting that even though Red Hat has worked with the CentOS Project to establish a merit-based open governance model for the CentOS Project, Red Hat does not provide any support for CentOS users nor a way how to convert from CentOS to RHEL. Furthermore, just because software runs on one of the two distributions does not mean that it will run on the other one because the two distributions have different build systems and delivery infrastructure.

Red Hat does not recommend using CentOS for production environments as all CentOS testing is carried out solely by volunteers in the CentOS community. To guarantee maximum compatibility, Red Hat cooperates with leading hardware manufacturers to ensure that the distribution works as intended.

Conclusion

Both RHEL and CentOS live under Red Hat’s umbrella, but their purpose is very different. RHEL is Red Hat’s enterprise-grade Linux distribution with optional commercial support. Its purpose is to be a stable foundation for rolling out new applications, virtualizing environments, and creating a secure hybrid cloud. CentOS, on the other hand, is community-supported and intended to be a breeding ground for new ideas and open source innovations that may or may not be later integrated into RHEL.

About the author

David Morelo

David Morelo is a professional content writer in the technology niche, covering everything from consumer products to emerging technologies and their cross-industry application

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