CentOS Linux was a freely available, community-supported Linux distribution that was developed, distributed, and maintained by the CentOS Project community contributors. It was derived based from Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources and released in alignment with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux production release cycle. For this reason was a great alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Note that CentOS Linux is not a product of Red Hat and does not have Red Hat support.

But in 2020, The CentOS Project, in coordination with Red Hat, announced that it would shift full investment to CentOS Stream, the upstream development platform for upcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases. That mean that will be no more alligned to the production version of Red Hat Enterprise.

As a result, CentOS Linux 7 will reach end of life (EOL) on June 30, 2024. 

If you are running CentOS Linux 7, you should migrate to a new operating system before June 30, 2024, to continue receiving security updates, patches, and new features. 

So, which options are available as a replacement for CentOS Linux?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Because CentOS Linux was derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources, users migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux can continue to use many of the same techniques and elements with minimal training, while also gaining more features, tools, support, and value. To further assist in your migration planning and execution, the CentOS Linux migration assessment is available to evaluate your current CentOS Linux setup and provide for a smooth shift to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Here are some options to ease your transition. 

Oracle Linux

Oracle Linux (abbreviated OL, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL) is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License since late 2006. It is compiled from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code, replacing Red Hat branding with Oracle’s. It is also used by Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems such as Oracle Exadata and others.

Rocky Linux

Rocky Linux is an open-source enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is under intensive development by the community.

This is my personal best option and it’s also possible live migrate a CentOS to a Rocky Linux!

And is becoming more and more considered by several compatibility guide and also used as a reference platform (for example for Scality RING is one of the possible supported options).

AlmaLinux

AlmaLinux is an Open Source, community owned and governed, forever-free enterprise Linux distribution, focused on long-term stability, providing a robust production-grade platform. AlmaLinux OS is binary compatible with RHEL®.