Official explanation:
The CentOS project of the future will be CentOS Stream, and over the next year we will switch focus from rebuilding RHEL's CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream, on a slightly earlier track than the current RHEL distribution. CentOS Linux 8, a re-build of RHEL 8, will end at the end of 2021. CentOS Stream will continue to serve users with RHEL as the upstream development branch after this date.
CentOS life cycle
| CentOS version |
release date |
fully updated |
maintenance update |
| 8 |
2019-09-24 |
2021-12-31 |
2021-12-31 |
| 7 |
2014-07-07 |
2020-Q4 |
2024-06-30 |
| 6 |
2011-07-10 |
2017-Q2 |
2020-11-30 |
| 5 |
2007-04-12 |
2014-Q1 |
2017-03-31 |
| 4 |
2005-03-09 |
2009-03-31 |
2012-02-29 |
| 3 |
2004-03-19 |
2006-07-20 |
2010-10-31 |
.CentOS Alternative
The last versions of CentOS are 7.9 and 8.5. With CentOS going out of the market, a large number of CentOS users are looking for new free alternatives, the most popular of which are Rocky and Almalinux, and OracleLinux.
AlmaLinux is an enterprise-grade server operating system and a stable Linux distribution, released regularly with a support cycle of up to 10 years, built and maintained by the developers of CloudLinux. You can rely on AlmaLinux OS to run any critical workload and easily switch from CentOS and other RHEL®. AlmaLinux OS Foundation members, sponsors, and partners support AlmaLinux OS with investments and long-term support commitments to ensure unlimited distribution.
Led by Gregory Kurtzer, the original founder of CentOS, Rocky Linux is community-driven, rebuilding the source directly from RHEL®. Rocky Linux is also an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that offers stability through regular updates and up to 10 years of lifecycle support. Rocky Linux provides free easy-to-use migration scripts for migrating from other enterprise Linux distributions. The community, sponsors, and partners have made long-term investment commitments to ensure the project stays in the community.
Oracle Linux is one of the Linux distributions. The full name is Oracle Enterprise Linux, or OEL for short. It is the first version released by Oracle in early 2006. It is known for its good support for Oracle software and hardware. Oracle started with Red Hat Linux, removed the Red Hat branding, and added Linux bugfixes. Oracle Enterprise Linux is, and intends to remain, fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
