Saying goodbye to CentOS. Alternative Linux operating systems for computational physics?

We will briefly discuss the reasons for ending support for the Linux distro, examine the available migration options, and consider when you should prefer one over the other.
In this video, we are mainly concerned about saying goodbye to the Linux version. With the EOL being *June 30, 2024.*
Alternative Linux distros to replace CentOS:
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azu...
WATCH NEXT 🎯
Update # 1: My ML Journey: Books, Courses & Setting Up.
• Learning Machine Learn...
SOCIALS
📸 Instagram: / itsjuliafrank
🐦 Twitter (X): / juliaifrank
🐈‍⬛ GitHub: github.com/ju-pixel
BLOG
juliaifrank.com/
NEWSLETTER
julias-pages.beehiiv.com/subs...
Every other week, we'll explore topics such as the wonders of nanomagnetism, coding, and personal growth. Expect honest reflections on balancing life, studies, and the joy of discovery.
THANKS TO MY LOYAL SUBSCRIBERS!
🤝 444🤝
MUSIC
Worry-free content with Epidemic Sound. 7-day free trial. Cancel anytime!
www.epidemicsound.com/referra...

[@antonfrank3722]

It is with great pleasure I announce my mother did not damage my PC in the making of this video.

[@juliaifrank]

Indeed, I was very careful, son ;)

[@carlosvargas2907]

@@juliaifrank Hahahahahahaha!!

[@shavkat_bek]

Haha, mama, please don’t dual-boot my PC 💀

[@antonfrank3722]

@@shavkat_bekI’ve broken it enough times dual booting random Linux distros at this point there isn’t much left to break 🤪

[@Fratm]

I work for a college, we switched to Rocky Linux, we have not regretted it and consider this our new home until Rocky goes away, which hopefully will not be any time soon :)

[@TrustJesusToday]

As a Fedora user I could see going to Cent OS on one of my PCs just for the experience of learning how to maintain the system on my own. Since it's RPM based, repos would have the latest updates. A Cent OS users group would be beneficial. Interesting presentation.

[@juliaifrank]

Thanks! I also use Fedora on my research workstation PC for now.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

What happened to Fedora?

[@pranaypallavtripathi2460]

Any suggestions for distro which is good for sysadmins and hpc application developers on ARM 64 bit hardware?

[@juliaifrank]

One of the reasons our hpc cluster admin decided to go with AlmaLinux is because it supports ARM 64 hardware as well as the AMD architectures. So I assume it should be safe to go with it. It’s a fairly large research computing cluster, I’m talking about. But I’m only a regular Linux user, so don’t take my word for an absolute and indisputable fact . Other Linux wizards here might be able to provide other suggestions.

[@barravince]

openSUSE, Gentoo, Debian there are so many out there

[@SirxMMPD]

Good reasoning on the distro choices! I would recommend (assuming no software that is restraining usage to RHEL like Linux) considering Debian and Ubuntu Server LTS. I have been using them for years and standardized on this as soon as the Stream versions of CentOS were created some years back. It works great!

[@BarafuAlbino]

Ubuntu Server is known to suddenly install a Snap package without permission.

[@SirxMMPD]

@@BarafuAlbino It wouldn't surprise me too much on the ubuntu side of it. I believe, though, the snap service could be removed or disabled if this is a concern. You would remove all the snaps if they are installed then run "sudo apt purge snapd". That would prevent any surprises. or just disable it "sudo systemctl stop snapd.service; sudo systemctl disable snapd.service". Use at your own risk though I haven't needed to do this.

[@SirxMMPD]

@@BarafuAlbino , I'm not sure what happened to my comment. Weird. I haven't seen that happen so far. If you are seeing that, though, I'd recommend disabling or removing the Snap service. I'd be concerned, too.

[@juliaifrank]

Yes, I’ve heard about it. Though I have no experience with it. My uni workstation is currently running Windows and a Linux VM with Fedora installed on it. I’m not quite satisfied with the setup, but it will do for now, until I have time to deal with it.

[@techofebd]

1. AlmaLinux or 2. RockyLinux (commented from RockyLinux)

[@mskiptr]

Well, the reason why CentOS was discontinued was pretty evident. At least to all of us Linux enthusiasts. It was bad for RedHat's business. Going to some other Enterprise Linux offering is probably the easiest option right now. Though personally, I would like to see more people consider choices outside of that monoculture. Debian is definitely a solid contender - it's stable and predictable and it's also very much a standard. But then there's GNU Guix, which is frankly the most interesting (though possibly still unpolished) option out there. It provides very unique features like unprivileged package management (non-admin users can quickly and efficiently get the software they need on a shared system), declarative OS configuration, transactional upgrades and even automatic software provenance tracking (Guix records exactly which versions of all packages you had at each point in time, so you can easily reconstruct that environment later on or on another machine).

[@myprogramming5500]

Cent OS didn't make redhat any money, so they ditched it for good. Better support is such a bs reason (I worked IT in customer support as well as other IT roles

[@juliaifrank]

Yes, while better support is one of their reasons cited, I agree that it’s certainly part of their broader strategic move to address the lack of direct revenue from CentOS. I just did not want to be too blunt with my statements.

[@marvinadams4784]

I switched to Ubuntu after the death of CENTOS. Never looked back. RedHat screwed up. Badly.

[@rursus8354]

Oracle is a bad name. Don't go with Oracle. UPDATE: I don't go with rpm:s - my favourite ultra-boring distro is Debian stable - but I understand the special needs for people that needs a secure stable OS and are running specialized supercomputing clusters, and I only hope that the rpm-side problems will be solved.

[@juliaifrank]

Thanks for the input! It’s always interesting to learn what people use and prefer and the reasoning behind their choices.

[@mrsentinel4911]

There's nothing better than Slackware

[@juliaifrank]

I’m not too familiar with it. Perhaps because it’s the one of the older Linux distributions . But I totally believe that it might be a great option for someone experienced with Linux.

[@mrsentinel4911]

​@@juliaifrank Everyone needs a little Slack in their life ...

[@BarafuAlbino]

@@juliaifrank I believe that Slackware is best when you get paid by hour and need a valid reason to spend more time on maintenance.

[@elksalmon84]

interesting how she is saying Lыnux

[@juliaifrank]

Grabbing people’s attention on KZbin is not easy nowadays. Gotta be creative:)

[@carlosvargas2907]

Tu sorpresa será mayúscula cuando te enteres en cuántos idiomas existe ese preciso sonido. Aní eñembo tavý, kapé.

[@brucoder]

... but, CentOS is open source. I thought Open Source meant that you could do whatever you want with it for yourself. Why do people keep doing this - claiming that the end is nigh when the truth is that the only thing that has changed is that the tool is no longer being supported by others for free? If you need CentOS, just keep using it and maintaining it for yourself. If the current version is working now, it will keep working forever unless you really don't have the resources to be using open source tools in the first place. If you've been dependent on others to maintain your platform and tools, is that really "open source" or are you just cheaping out and only using FREE stuff? An organization that I've been involved with since the mid-90s has been using a Linux distro based on the 1.0.9 kernel and associated tools for a web and ftp server. Never been hacked. and has only been rebooted 5 times in that many years (still running on an old MIPS computer, as well).

[@juliaifrank]

Well, you just provided a fourth option for dealing with CentOS end of life: - keep it and maintain it yourself. (I should have thought about that and adds to the video.) Valid, if you are comfortable with doing so and knowledgeable enough. That’s how I see it as a regular Linux user, not a professional by any means. Another concern maybe potential security issues. That’s is especially important for any research computing clusters. Everyone has their own reasons choosing to migrate from CentOS to something else, once the support ends for it.

[@sshivam6955]

Nerd mom and son