CentOS was the backbone of enterprise Linux infrastructure for nearly two decades. Free. Stable. Binary-compatible with RHEL. The obvious choice for teams that wanted enterprise Linux without the enterprise price tag.
It's now, definitively, dead.
- CentOS Linux 8 reached end of life December 31, 2021
- CentOS Linux 7 reached end of life June 30, 2024
There are no supported CentOS Linux versions remaining.
The Full CentOS EOL Timeline
| Version | End of Life | Status | EOL Risk Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| CentOS Linux 6 | Nov 30, 2020 | ❌ EOL | 97 Critical |
| CentOS Linux 7 | Jun 30, 2024 | ❌ EOL | 85 Critical |
| CentOS Linux 8 | Dec 31, 2021 | ❌ EOL | 89 Critical |
| CentOS Stream 8 | May 31, 2024 | ❌ EOL | 82 Critical |
| CentOS Stream 9 | May 31, 2027 | ✅ Supported | 22 Low |
| CentOS Stream 10 | TBD | ✅ Supported | 10 Low |
CentOS 8: The Betrayal
CentOS 8's EOL story is different from any other software EOL — and worse.
Red Hat announced in December 2020 that CentOS Linux 8 would reach end of life on December 31, 2021, cutting short what was originally a 10-year lifecycle. The announcement came less than 18 months after CentOS 8's initial release.
Teams that had migrated to CentOS 8 to modernize their infrastructure found themselves holding an EOL operating system less than two years after deploying it. Many of those servers are still running today — over four years past EOL.
EOL Risk Score for CentOS 8: 89 Critical
CentOS 7: The Compounding EOL Problem
CentOS 7 is a unique case study in layered EOL risk.
The OS itself reached EOL June 30, 2024. But look at what else is EOL inside a default CentOS 7 install:
- Kernel 3.10 — EOL for years
- Python 2.7 — EOL since January 2020
- OpenSSL 1.0.2 — EOL since December 2019
- glibc 2.17 — outdated, no upstream patches
Servers running CentOS 7 are EOL at the OS level, kernel level, runtime level, and cryptography library level simultaneously. Every new CVE in any of these components is permanently unpatched.
EOL Risk Score for CentOS 7: 85 Critical
CentOS Stream is NOT a Replacement
This is the most important clarification to make.
CentOS Stream is a rolling pre-release distribution that sits upstream of RHEL. Where CentOS Linux was a downstream rebuild of RHEL (stable, tested, binary-compatible), CentOS Stream receives updates before those updates are released in RHEL.
That means CentOS Stream may contain bugs that are later fixed before the RHEL release. It is a development preview — useful for testing, not ideal for stable production workloads that previously ran CentOS Linux.
Migration Options
AlmaLinux OS
Free, community-supported, RHEL binary-compatible rebuild maintained by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation.
- AlmaLinux 8: supported through May 2029
- AlmaLinux 9: supported through May 2032
- Provides
almalinux-deployfor in-place migration from CentOS 8
Rocky Linux
Another free RHEL-compatible rebuild, founded by one of CentOS's original creators.
- Rocky Linux 8: supported through May 2029
- Rocky Linux 9: supported through May 2032
- Provides
migrate2rockyfor in-place conversion from CentOS 8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
RHEL is available at no cost for up to 16 production servers through the Red Hat Developer Program.
- RHEL 9: supported through May 2032
- Extended Lifecycle Support available through 2036
In-Place vs. Fresh Provisioning
From CentOS 8: Both AlmaLinux and Rocky provide scripts that convert a running CentOS 8 installation without a full OS reinstall. This is the fastest path.
From CentOS 7: The major version jump (RHEL 7 → RHEL 9 equivalent) means most teams use a provisioning-based approach — stand up a new server, migrate the application, decommission the old one. In-place conversion across major versions is not officially supported and carries significant risk.
Full article with EOL Risk Scores and detailed migration guidance: endoflife.ai/article-centos-eol
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