CentOS 8 End‑of‑Life: Timeline, Alternatives & Migration Guide
Red Hat announced the end of free CentOS Linux, detailing the 2023 EOL for CentOS 8, the shift to CentOS Stream, extended support for CentOS 7, and offering migration options such as AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and RHEL for enterprises seeking stable server platforms.
In December 2020 Red Hat announced that it would stop providing the free CentOS Linux distribution at the end of this year. On Friday Red Hat reminded that CentOS Linux 8 will reach its End‑of‑Life (EOL) on 31 December 2023.
CentOS is a Linux distribution built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Because it shares the same source, many enterprises use CentOS as a stable, cost‑free alternative to RHEL. Last year Red Hat said CentOS would shift to a platform for DevOps developers, called CentOS Stream , and there will be no CentOS 9.
CentOS Stream 9, originally planned for Q2 2023, has been delayed to mid‑November. Users can download components for IBM Power, IBM Z, ARM64 and x86 architectures from the CentOS website. CentOS Stream 8 will no longer receive automatic upgrades.
The final release of CentOS 8 will be updated only until 31 December 2021, while CentOS 7 will receive updates until 30 June 2024. For CentOS 8 users, Red Hat will provide a RHEL 8.5 rebuild as the last CentOS version, possibly after the official EOL.
Point releases of RHEL include several security updates, and the last CentOS Linux 8 point release will receive updates until 31 January 2022. After that, any version with a CVSS 9+ vulnerability will be removed from mirrors and archived on vault.centos.org.
Major companies such as Facebook, Disney, GoDaddy, Toyota, Verizon and vendors like Juniper, F5 and Fortinet rely on CentOS. Recommended alternatives to CentOS 8 include AlmaLinux, CloudLinux OS, Rocky Linux, Amazon Linux, HPE ClearOS, Oracle Linux, Ubuntu and, of course, RHEL.
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