CentOS


CentOS is a discontinued Linux distribution that provided a free and open-source community-supported computing platform, functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In January 2014, CentOS announced the official joining with Red Hat while staying independent from RHEL, under a new CentOS governing board.
The first CentOS release in May 2004, numbered as CentOS version 2, was forked from RHEL version 2.1AS. Since version 8, CentOS officially supports the x86-64, ARM64, and POWER8 architectures, and releases up to version 6 also supported the IA-32 architecture., [|AltArch] releases of CentOS 7 are available for the IA-32 architecture, Power ISA, and for the ARMv7hl and AArch64 variants of the ARM architecture. CentOS 8 was released on 24 September 2019.
In December 2020, Red Hat unilaterally terminated CentOS development in favor of CentOS Stream 9, a distribution positioned upstream of RHEL. In March 2021, CloudLinux released a RHEL derivative called AlmaLinux. Later in May 2021, one of the CentOS founders created the competing Rocky Linux project as a successor to the original mission of CentOS.

History

CentOS originated as a build of CAOS Linux, an RPM-based Linux distribution started by Gregory Kurtzer in 2002. Infiscale described its GravityOS as " the small footprint of Caos", indicating a certain level of influence from the discontinued distribution.
In June 2006, David Parsley, the primary developer of Tao Linux, announced the retirement of Tao Linux and its rolling into CentOS development. Tao users migrated to the CentOS release via.
In July 2009, it was reported in an open letter on the CentOS Project web site that one of CentOS's founders, Lance Davis, had disappeared in 2008. Davis had ceased contribution to the project, but continued to hold the registration for the CentOS domain and PayPal account. In August 2009, the CentOS team reportedly made contact with Davis and obtained the centos.info and centos.org domains.
In July 2010, CentOS overtook Debian to become the most popular Linux distribution for web servers, with almost 30% of all Linux web servers using it. Debian retook the lead in January 2012.
In January 2014, Red Hat announced that it would sponsor the CentOS Project, "helping to establish a platform well-suited to the needs of open source developers that integrate technologies in and around the operating system". As a result of these changes, ownership of CentOS trademarks was transferred to Red Hat, which now employs most of the CentOS head developers; however, they work as part of Red Hat's Open Source and Standards team, which operates separately from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux team. A new CentOS governing board was also established.
On 8 December 2020, the CentOS Project announced that the distribution would be discontinued at the end of 2021 in order to focus on CentOS Stream. The community's response to this announcement was overwhelmingly negative. Soon thereafter, Gregory Kurtzer announced a new project to continue the original CentOS focus, which became known as Rocky Linux. CloudLinux created AlmaLinux to provide a community-supported successor to CentOS Linux, aiming for binary-compatibility with the current version of RHEL. A beta version of AlmaLinux was first released on February 1, 2021, and the first stable release of AlmaLinux was published on March 30, 2021. A beta version of Rocky Linux was released on April 30, 2021, and subsequently on June 21, 2021, the stable release of Rocky Linux 8.4 was released.

Design

CentOS developers use Red Hat's source code to create a final product very similar to RHEL. Red Hat's branding and logos are changed because Red Hat does not allow them to be redistributed. CentOS is available free of charge. Technical support is primarily provided by the community via official mailing lists, web forums, and chat rooms.
The project is affiliated with Red Hat but aspires to be more public, open, and inclusive. While Red Hat employs most of the CentOS head developers, the CentOS Project itself relies on donations from users and organizational sponsors.

Versioning and releases

CentOS releases

CentOS version numbers for releases older than 7.0 have two parts, a major version and a minor version, which correspond to the major version and update set of Red Hat Enterprise Linux used to build a particular CentOS release. For example, CentOS 6.5 is built from the source packages of RHEL 6 update 5, which is a so-called "point release" of RHEL 6.
Starting with version 7.0, CentOS version numbers also include a third part that indicates the monthstamp of the source code the release is based on. For example, version number 7.0-1406 still maps this CentOS release to the zeroth update set of RHEL 7, while "1406" indicates that the source code this release is based on dates from June 2014. Using the monthstamp allows installation images to be reissued for oncoming container and cloud releases, while maintaining a connection to the related base release version.
Since mid-2006 and starting with RHEL version 4.4, which is formally known as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 update 4, Red Hat has adopted a version-naming convention identical to that used by CentOS.
On 10 September 2019 CentOS deferred CentOS 8.1 work for CentOS 7.7 since CentOS 7.x was in production and CentOS 8.x was not in production. Once CentOS 7.7 was released resources moved back to CentOS 8.0.
On 24 September 2019 CentOS officially released CentOS version 8.0. Since CentOS was discontinued at the end of 2021, its final release was version 8.5. In contrast, its RHEL counterpart continued to version 8.10.

End-of-support schedule

According to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle, CentOS 5, 6 and 7 will be "maintained for up to 10 years" as it is based on RHEL. Previously, CentOS 4 had been supported for seven years.

Older version information

CentOS version 7

Latest version information

CentOS version 8

AltArch releases

AltArch releases are released by the Alternative Architecture [|Special Interest Group] to support architectures that are not supported by the base CentOS releases.
CentOS versionArchitecturesRHEL baseCentOS release date
7.1-1503AArch647.12015-08-04
7.1-1503IA-327.12015-10-12
7.2-1511IA-327.22015-12-19
7.2-1511ARMv7hl7.22015-12-19
7.2-1511PowerPC64 7.22015-12-19
7.2-1511POWER8 7.22015-12-19
7.3-1611ARMv7hl7.32016-12-14
7.3-1611POWER8 7.32016-12-22
7.3-1611AArch647.32017-01-04
7.3-1611IA-327.32017-01-27
7.4-1708ARMv7hl7.42017-09-13
7.4-1708POWER8 7.42017-09-14
7.4-1708POWER77.42017-09-14
7.4-1708AArch647.42017-09-13
7.4-1708IA-327.42017-10-12
7.5-1804ARMv7hl7.52018-05-10
7.5-1804POWER8 LE7.52018-05-10
7.5-1804POWER77.52018-05-10
7.5-1804AArch647.52018-05-10
7.5-1804IA-327.52018-05-10
7.6-1810ARMv7hl7.62018-12-03
7.6-1810POWER8 7.62018-12-03
7.6-1810PowerPC97.62018-12-03
7.6-1810AArch647.62018-12-03
7.6-1810IA-327.62018-12-03
7.7-1908ARMv7hl7.72019-09-17
7.7-1908POWER77.72019-09-17
7.7-1908POWER8 7.72019-09-17
7.7-1908POWER97.72019-09-17
7.7-1908AArch647.72019-09-17
7.7-1908IA-327.72019-09-17

Add-ons releases

Software Collections is a CentOS repository that provides a set of programming languages, database servers, and various related packages. Provided software versions are either more recent than their equivalent versions included in the base CentOS distribution, or are made available as official CentOS packages for the first time.
Packages available from the SCL do not replace the default system tools provided with CentOS. Instead, a parallel set of tools is installed in the directory, and can be optionally enabled per application by using supplied utility. For example, the default versions of Perl or MySQL remain those provided by the base CentOS installation.
Add-on nameArchitecturesBase CentOS versionCentOS release dateRHEL release dateDelay
Software Collections 1.0x86-646.4, 6.52014-02-192013-09-12160
Developer Toolset 2.0IA-32, x86-646.42013-09-12

Releases without upstream equivalents

Some of the ISO images released by the CentOS Project have no direct upstream equivalents. They are created for specific purposes, such as for providing a live bootable image, or for providing a reduced-size installation medium. In addition to those listed [|below], there are also AltArch releases, which also have no direct upstream equivalents.
LiveCD and LiveDVD images contain a bootable compressed file system, created by a set of custom scripts using a kickstart configuration file. These live images can be also installed to hard disk, thus obtaining a fully functional CentOS installation. The set of packages installed that way on a hard disk can not be adjusted during the installation, as that is a simple transfer of the image existing on CD/DVD, to a hard disk. After booting from hard disk, yum can be used for adding or removing packages.
MinimalCD images contain a minimum of packages required for a functional installation, with no compromises in security or network usability. These minimal images use the standard CentOS installer with all of its regular features minus the selection of packages. Yum can be used after the installation is completed to add or remove packages.
CentOS versionRelease nameArchitecturesRHEL baseCentOS release date
4.7ServerIA-32, x86-644.72008-10-17
5.1Live CDIA-325.12008-02-18
5.2Live CDIA-325.22008-07-17
5.3Live CDIA-325.32009-05-27
5.5Live CDIA-32, x86-645.52010-05-14
5.6Live CDIA-32, x86-645.62011-04-08
6.0Live CDIA-32, x86-646.02011-07-25
6.0Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.02011-07-27
6.0Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.02011-07-28
6.1Live CDIA-32, x86-646.12011-12-09
6.1Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.12011-12-09
6.1Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.12011-12-09
6.2Live CDIA-32, x86-646.22011-12-20
6.2Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.22011-12-20
6.2Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.22011-12-20
6.3Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.32012-07-09
6.3Live CDIA-32, x86-646.32012-07-15
6.3Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.32012-07-15
6.4Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.42013-03-09
6.4Live CDIA-32, x86-646.42013-05-22
6.4Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.42013-05-22
6.5Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.52013-12-01
6.5Live CDIA-32, x86-646.52013-12-01
6.5Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.52013-12-01
6.6Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.62014-10-28
6.7Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.72015-08-07
6.7Live CDIA-32, x86-646.72015-08-11
6.7Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.72013-08-11
6.8Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.82016-05-25
6.8Live CDIA-32, x86-646.82016-05-25
6.8Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.82016-05-25
6.9Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.92017-04-05
6.9Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.92017-04-05
6.10Minimal CDIA-32, x86-646.102018-07-03
6.10Live DVDIA-32, x86-646.102018-07-03
7.0-1406Minimalx86-647.02014-07-21
7.0-1406Live CDx86-647.02014-07-07
7.0-1406Gnome Livex86-647.02014-07-07
7.0-1406KDE Livex86-647.02014-07-07
7.1-1503Minimalx86-647.12015-03-31
7.1-1503Live CDx86-647.12015-03-31
7.1-1503Gnome Livex86-647.12015-03-31
7.1-1503KDE Livex86-647.12015-03-31
7.2-1511Minimalx86-647.22015-12-14
7.2-1511Gnome Livex86-647.22015-12-14
7.2-1511KDE Livex86-647.22015-12-14
7.3-1611Minimalx86-647.32016-12-12
7.3-1611Gnome Livex86-647.32016-12-12
7.3-1611KDE Livex86-647.32016-12-12
7.4-1708Minimalx86-647.42017-09-13
7.4-1708Gnome Livex86-647.42017-09-13
7.4-1708KDE Livex86-647.42017-09-13
7.5-1804Minimalx86-647.52018-05-10
7.5-1804Gnome Livex86-647.52018-05-10
7.5-1804KDE Livex86-647.52018-05-10
7.6-1810Minimalx86-647.62018-12-03
7.6-1810Gnome Livex86-647.62018-12-03
7.6-1810KDE Livex86-647.62018-12-03
7.7-1908Minimalx86-647.72019-09-17
7.7-1908Gnome Livex86-647.72019-09-17
7.7-1908KDE Livex86-647.72019-09-17