129 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
129 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
::: navbar
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<div>
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[Home](../index.html)
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</div>
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<div>
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[Blog](blog--01.html)
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</div>
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<div>
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[Git](https://renraku.dingo-bramble.ts.net/clement)
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</div>
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<div>
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[CV](../files/CV.pdf)
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</div>
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:::
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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<div>
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# A Brief Goodbye to CentOS
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</div>
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The traditional CentOS Linux distribution as we know it is dead. Here is
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another drop in the ocean of opinion pieces that follow the news of its
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death. After cooling down from the initial rush of blood to my head,
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here is my take on this event.
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## Why Did This Probably Happen
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With the advent of DevOps and SRE, businesses and startups are moving
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away from the old-school concept of traditional server clusters to
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running their applications on disposable containers. The trend is clear
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and true. Developers are increasingly less reliant on a tried-and-true
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Linux distribution that lasts for a decade. With containers, developers
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can develop, test, deploy, and rollback with blazing fast velocity.
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## How It Will Affect All of Us
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Without a doubt one of the most popular Linux distributions to ever
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exist, CentOS was prevalent among all kinds of computing systems ranging
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from simple database servers to billion-dollar computer clusters. There
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are countless organizations have made the business decision to keep
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using the traditional model, or organizations that do not require
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microservices at all. With CentOS drawn from below their feet, a lot of
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organizations will be forced to migrate to another option, or fork out a
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pretty penny for RHEL. Besides, on-prem deployment of any container
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orchestration tool still requires a stable Linux distribution.
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The second ripple effect it will have is towards the skilled
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professionals who have spend decades on CentOS. Not every company is
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willing to pay up for RHEL or risk using CentOS Stream. For those who
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migrate to Debian or OpenSUSE, they will have to retrain and adapt with
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different tools.
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## Questioning IBM/Red Hat Decisions
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The most obvious of them all was, was it necessary for CentOS to die?
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With CentOS Stream to track ahead of RHEL, it is still possible for
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CentOS to remain functional and serve its purpose. This is clearly a
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business decision to increase profits. It used to be that developers
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wanted to write for RHEL but did not want pay for it; CentOS filled that
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need. What also happened was that some companies decided that they
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wanted the free experience all the way. Red Hat now provides free use of
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the Red Hat Universal Base Image for developers. With this, companies no
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longer have an excuse.
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Secondly, why the PR disaster? In hindsight, there is no way to deliver
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this news gently to the public. However, I felt that Red Hat gave the
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bird to the open source community, especially those who contributed to
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CentOS, by pulling the plug on Centos 8 towards the end of 2021. There
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wasn\'t even a courtesy to end it later then CentOS 7\'s EOL date, June
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30th 2024. A raw-dogged \"Pay up, now\" to everyone.
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Last of all, what is the next move from Red Hat/IBM? With CentOS gone,
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there is a huge vacuum for another to take its place. RHEL sources are
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still available and can still be repackaged. While Red Hat currently has
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massive influence over Linux in general, is this a arrogant statement
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proclaiming \"Hey, you can\'t live without me\"? Another ominuous take
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with conspiratorial undertones would be that Red Hat plans to eventually
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scrap the FOSS model, but I would have to wear my tin hat for this one.
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## So, What Happens Now?
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Almost immediately after the release, all the attention is now directed
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to towards filling the space that CentOS will leave behind. Undoubtedly,
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Ubuntu and SUSE would try to assert their presence with their open
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source alternatives. Debian, the largest behemoth of them all, hopefully
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will receive funding and participation like never before. A silver
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lining of this event would perhaps be the buzzing excitement of what
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will be and can be. It is time to be excited about Linux again. I, for
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one, have to begin migrating my CentOS containers and virtual machines
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to Debian.
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CentOS\'s founder, Gregory Kurtzer, is working with the community to
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establish Rocky Linux. Join them at
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https://webchat.freenode.net/#rockylinux .
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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::: navbar
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<div>
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[Prev](blog-012.html)
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</div>
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<div>
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[Next](blog-014.html)
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</div>
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:::
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> I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly
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> eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant.\
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> - Ursula K. Le Guin
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