CentOS End‑of‑Life and Viable Alternative Linux Distributions

CentOS Linux 8 stopped receiving updates at the end of 2021, and CentOS Linux 7 will reach its end‑of‑support date on June 30, 2024.

Linux has a rich ecosystem with more than three hundred active distributions; the most widely used include Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, SuSE, and CentOS.

Distributions can be broadly classified into two groups: commercially maintained (e.g., Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL) and community‑maintained (e.g., Debian).

In China, CentOS enjoys the highest market share because it occupies the downstream position in the Red Hat ecosystem: Fedora → RHEL → CentOS.

Fedora serves as an upstream testing ground, with its innovations eventually incorporated into Red Hat; however, using RHEL requires a costly subscription, while CentOS is a free rebuild of RHEL source code, inheriting its strengths without the trademark.

In 2019, Red Hat introduced a new model—CentOS Stream—shifting community work upstream. CentOS Stream is a developer‑focused distribution that helps the community, Red Hat partners, and others leverage open‑source innovation in a more stable and predictable Linux ecosystem.

With this change, the flow becomes Fedora → CentOS → RHEL, moving CentOS from downstream to upstream and affecting downstream users.

Current status:

CentOS Linux 8 stopped updates at the end of 2021.

CentOS Linux 7, which has many users, will cease support on June 30, 2024.

Future releases will no longer include new CentOS Linux versions; only CentOS Stream will continue to evolve.

Red Hat advises existing CentOS users to start planning migration to a suitable path as soon as possible.

Alternative migration routes include:

Other free community versions such as Rocky Linux and Ubuntu.

Foreign distributions like SUSE and Amazon Linux 2.

Red Hat‑led options, namely CentOS Stream or RHEL.

Domestic Chinese distributions such as Longxi, OpenEuler, KylinOS, etc.

Red Hat officially recommends upgrading to CentOS Stream, while noting that it is not intended for production environments.

Key takeaways:

Traditional enterprise customers may consider RHEL as a direct replacement because of compatibility and hardware support.

Internet‑focused companies often prefer Ubuntu for its rapid feature cycle.

CentOS Stream is also a viable option, offering a tested release cadence similar to Red Hat.

Opportunities for domestic operating systems:

OpenEuler – a China‑origin open‑source OS compatible with CentOS, optimized for core kernel functions and offering container, virtualization, and confidential computing features.

Anolis OS – a fully open, neutral distribution supporting multiple architectures and cloud scenarios, 100 % compatible with the CentOS 8 ecosystem.

Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 – built on Anolis OS and tailored for Alibaba Cloud infrastructure.

TencentOS Server Kernel – a cloud‑optimized Linux OS from Tencent, emphasizing performance and security.

KylinOS – a domestic OS designed for enterprise workloads, supporting various hardware platforms and offering high reliability.

Red Flag Linux – a desktop OS supporting multiple CPU architectures and offering enterprise‑grade kernel maintenance.

Regardless of the chosen distribution, the goal is to select a solution that aligns with the organization’s technical requirements and future growth.

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