CentOS 8.0 released along with the new CentOS Stream distribution

The CentOS Project announced the availability of CentOS 8.0, the latest version of the well-known Linux distribution derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and developed in collaboration with the company of the same name, now part of IBM.

With the abandonment of Scientific Linux, CentOS has become the free version of RHEL of reference, and this is also demonstrated by the CentOS Stream project: a cross between Fedora and RHEL to involve the community more in the development of RHEL.

CentOS 8.0 announced along with CentOS Stream

CentOS 8.0 is a derivation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0, which is almost identical. The distribution is a freely accessible and free version of RHEL, but unlike it, it does not enjoy the commercial support of Red Hat.

Among the main innovations of CentOS 8.0 there is a general improvement in the support for cloud and / or container workloads, with particular attention to the hybrid cloud; support for the Linux 4.18 kernel; support for GNOME 3.28 on Wayland for instances with a graphical environment; the presence of the console via the web Cockpit which simplifies some administrative tasks.

The announcement of CentOS Stream is also significant: this new distribution is a meeting point between the rapid development of Fedora on the one hand and the slow development of RHEL on the other to offer distribution with a rolling release model (without pre-established versions, but a continuous stream of updates) and open development that involves the community.

This last aspect is particularly important because it allows the community to influence the development of RHEL, given that the developments of CentOS Stream go then to flow into the stable versions of RHEL.

The official announcement is available on the distribution website.