Original note from: MuyLinux
To read the original in Spanish by J Pomeyrol, click here
If the news of the death of CentOS - at least, as we knew it until now - caused a sensation, Red Hat’s move to extend the free subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), albeit to a lesser extent, has also generated its echo. One of the most curious positions is found in the openSUSE community, where one of its members has published an article recommending openSUSE Leap as one of the alternatives to CentOS to consider. And not.
openSUSE Leap is an excellent distribution, with a fair bit of support and first-rate stability derived from the code of SUSE itself, with which it shares compatibility at the binary level. However, proposing it as a replacement for CentOS is misleading the potential user, even if it does not have any type of restriction on its use. Simply due to its maintenance period, it is not a reasonable option, since the ten years of support that CentOS offered is not something common outside the business field.
But alternatives, there are them. So, we are going to review the most outstanding alternatives to CentOS both for users - individuals, it is understood - and for companies.
Five realistic CentOS alternatives
We insist on the term realistic because there may be as many alternatives to CentOS as there are opinions and use cases, but if what it is about is to find a replacement that meets the main advantages that CentOS offered, the range is considerably reduced. Those benefits are summed up in noted long-term support, environment- and enterprise-level stability, the ability to purchase professional support, and perhaps remain RHEL compliant.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
It is a truism, but also a must: if the thing is going for alternatives to CentOS, what less than starting with the original, especially now that Red Hat has expanded the use of RHEL in all kinds of free production environments up to 16 machines . For those users and businesses with small workloads, there is no better choice than RHEL.
In addition, the process of migration from CentOS to RHEL is very well tuned and if you need business support, this is the most direct way. RHEL’s standard support price per server starts at $ 799 per year. More information.
Oracle Linux
Continuing with the derivatives of RHEL, we could mention CentOS 7 itself, whose life cycle will be the expected ten years; or also to the various forks that have been announced so far. But since we are talking about realistic CentOS alternatives, which are ready today to support production environments at the same level, Oracle Linux is the most prominent. Like CentOS, it is an absolute clone of RHEL, but maintained for almost three decades by a large company; Like RHEL, you have the migration process from CentOS flattened.
The greatest attraction of Oracle Linux is its excellent maintenance, always up to date with all system updates and, of course, being totally free and without restrictions, although its basic support plan per server is somewhat more expensive: it starts at 1,080 annual euros. More information.
SUSE Linux Enterprise
We are now leaving the Red Hat realm, and therefore CentOS support, to target its main competitor, the veteran SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE). In this case the migration will be more complicated, but for stability and support other than: like RHEL, each version of SLE has its ten years of support, with the possibility of extension. Nothing to do with openSUSE Leap, even though it can solve the ballot in more modest scenarios.
Also like RHEL, SUSE offers free SLE for developers, but in a much more limited way. In business environments, it should be noted, SLE’s annual price per installation, including standard support, starts at $ 799. More information.
Ubuntu
Another great alternative to CentOS, valid for users and companies alike, is Ubuntu. The support of its business versions - the LTS, we must bear in mind that we are talking about distributions aimed mainly at servers - is five years and its unlimited use is completely free. In addition, as part of its business offer - this yes, paid - includes an extension of maintenance of between 8 and 10 years, depending on the version.
Basic Ubuntu professional support starts at 225 for physical server installation, 75 for virtual server, and 25 for desktop, but by features, the equivalence with the other alternatives would be 750, 250, and 150, respectively. . More information.
Debian
The last of the CentOS alternatives we pick up is another veteran, the quintessential community Linux distribution, Debian. But make no mistake: that its development is community based, it does not mean that Debian is not a premium option to govern any server. Its stability is guaranteed and like Ubuntu, each version offers five years of support, although the community itself can maintain a large part of its repositories for much longer.
The ‘problem’ with Debian is that although there are many companies that are dedicated to providing paid support, it is not the same as going to the same system developer; And that the additional support time is not entirely sure how long it will last, so making very long-term plans can be a business complication.
Of course, before evaluating these alternatives to CentOS or any other, you have to look closely at the characteristics of all and carefully compare what is needed to optimally fill the gap, since they are included in their support offers certain functions , while others offer them free or vary depending on the plan that is contracted or the medium in which it is to be installed.
Fortunately, it is possible to test them all thoroughly before making a firm decision and there is time to plan a migration, because if you currently rely on CentOS 8, its life cycle will not end until the end of this year.