Software Update: CentOS 8 (1905)

CentOS is an open source operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux that is designed for use in enterprise environments. The name is an abbreviation of Community ENTerprise Operating System. Unlike RHEL, CentOS is free to use. When looking at popularity, CentOS falls just outside the top ten. A new version of CentOS appears every two years, which is then provided with updates for seven years. Version 8 (1905) of CentOS has now been released and the full release notes are here to find. At nixCraft there is more to read about the changes made in version 8.

CentOS-8 (1905) Release Notes

Hello and welcome to the first CentOS-8 release. The CentOS Linux distribution is a stable, predictable, manageable and reproducible platform derived from the sources of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). You can read our official product announcement for this release.

CentOS fully conforms with Red Hat’s redistribution policy and aims to have full functional compatibility with the upstream product. CentOS mainly changes packages to remove Red Hat’s branding and artwork.

We have decided not to follow Red Hat’s usage of Installation Roles. In CentOS Linux all content from every distribution ‘channel’ is made available to the user at time of installation.

Please read through the other sections before trying an install or reporting an issue.

This is the first release of a new distribution from the CentOS Project: CentOS Stream. CentOS Stream is a rolling-release Linux distro that exists as a mid-stream between the upstream development in Fedora Linux and the downstream development for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is a cleared-path to contributing into future minor releases of RHEL while interacting with Red Hat and other open source ecosystem developers. This pairs nicely with the existing contribution path in Fedora for future major releases of RHEL. You can read more on the CentOS Stream release notes page.