CentOS 8 Announcement - FAQ

Q. What does the CentOS announcement mean to my business? 

A. We understand that the announcement has taken many businesses by surprise. However, no decisions or changes need to happen immediately. You have time. Whatever version you are on now, you can get ongoing support and builds through OpenLogic by Perforce, including CentOS 8 (see timelines below). 

Going forward, the choice to stay with CentOS, move to CentOS Stream, or migrate to another distribution is entirely up to your business goals, release schedules, etc. Perforce and the OpenLogic team have extensive experience helping customers run enterprise open source at scale, with a proven track record of support, consulting, and migrations. Please consider us a trusted advisor in your decision-making process. 

Q. If we do choose to move to another distribution, what does Perforce recommend? 

A: Because we are solution agnostic, we can work with your organization to determine the right tools and timeframe if you should choose to migrate to another system. We are offering all Perforce customers a complimentary 1-hour consulting session with our OpenLogic enterprise architects to begin the planning process. 

Q. What are other customers doing/saying about this announcement?

A: Understandably, there has been a big reaction among CentOS customers who have built their business and made decisions around a previously understood support and enhancement lifecycle. Whether your organization decides to stay with your current version of CentOS, migrate to CentOS Stream, or move to another operating system, Perforce can help with ongoing support and a seamless migration. Some customers have already been scheduling a complimentary consulting session to discuss strategy and options. 

Q. What is Perforce’s response to the announcement that the CentOS community will shift their focus to CentOS Stream?

A: OpenLogic has been following the announcement and CentOS Stream preview since the original implementation. While we understand that this decision may be disruptive to some, we liken it to the decision many software communities have made to shift to more rapid release and continuous delivery patterns, such as the shift to six-month major releases of Java.

Over the coming weeks, OpenLogic will be announcing ways in which we plan to keep your experience with CentOS seamless, stable, and enterprise-class. Know that we remain fully committed to CentOS regardless of the delivery method.

Q: Will OpenLogic’s support of CentOS 6 LTS or 7 change as a result of the shift in focus by the community to CentOS Stream?

A: No, the CentOS Stream change does not impact the level of service, deployment methodology, or support capabilities that will be provided to our customers.

Q. Will it be possible to have a call with an expert at OpenLogic to discuss the impact of CentOS Stream to our organization?

A. Absolutely! We are happy to offer Perforce customers a complimentary two-hour session with one of our architects to discuss CentOS Stream. 

Q. What are some of the benefits of moving to CentOS Stream?

A. One of main reasons that businesses choose to adopt RHEL over CentOS is that RHEL subscribers are given access to vulnerability patches and bugfixes first. CentOS Stream changes that and will now be the first platform to receive the most secure code.

Users who were manually installing packages like OpenSSL or Apache Web Server from the newest upstream source code will now have access to newer versions of these packages as native .rpms.

In general, if you have adopted mature CI/CD, repo mirror management, and patch channel management, you will have more freedom and flexibility to adopt stability enhancements and security releases faster than are currently available through static repositories.

Q. What are some of the risks of moving to CentOS Stream?

A. Running package upgrades against the public CentOS Stream may result in unexpected updates of supporting Linux packages. Businesses who rely on the CentOS community to curate stable package versions will need to consider this in their test plans.

If you choose to continue to adopt CentOS Stream, in general, the less continually you currently deliver your software, the more risk you will incur at release time.

Q. When will these changes take effect?

A. The changes will take effect as shown in the chart below. As you can see by the dates listed, customers do not need to make an immediate decision. You have plenty of time to decide the right choice for your business going forward. 

For additional information, please contact your Perforce account manager or email us at info@perforce.com.