CentOS Stream

CentOS Stream is a Linux distribution brand introduced by the CentOS Project in 2019 as a rolling-preview edition that sits between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Rather than being a downstream rebuild of RHEL, CentOS Stream is the upstream development branch where changes are staged before they are finalized in RHEL. This makes it a continuously updated platform for developers, system administrators, and partners who want early visibility into the next RHEL release. The brand is closely tied to Red Hat, which sponsors the CentOS Project and owns the RHEL ecosystem. In December 2020, Red Hat announced that the traditional CentOS Linux (a downstream rebuild of RHEL) would be discontinued at the end of 2021, with CentOS Stream becoming the project's primary focus. This decision reshaped the CentOS brand from a free RHEL clone into a development-oriented rolling distribution, and it prompted the creation of community alternatives such as Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux. CentOS Stream is distributed free of charge and is available in multiple architectures. It is used in development, testing, and CI/CD environments, and it serves as the base for some downstream projects and vendor products. The brand is not a commercial product sold directly to end customers; instead, it functions as a community-facing platform within the Red Hat and IBM software ecosystem. Its positioning emphasizes transparency, early access, and collaboration with the RHEL engineering process.

The CentOS Project emerged in the mid-2000s as a community effort to provide a free, binary-compatible rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Over the years, CentOS Linux became widely used on servers and in development environments because it offered RHEL compatibility without subscription costs. In 2014, Red Hat announced that it would sponsor the CentOS Project, bringing the project under its umbrella and aligning governance with Red Hat's engineering interests. In 2019, the CentOS Project introduced CentOS Stream as a new rolling-release edition. Unlike CentOS Linux, which was built from already-released RHEL source code, CentOS Stream would track the development branch that leads to the next minor RHEL release. This was a significant shift in the brand's role: CentOS Stream became an upstream preview rather than a downstream clone. In December 2020, Red Hat announced that CentOS Linux would be discontinued at the end of 2021, and that CentOS Stream would become the project's primary offering. The announcement generated substantial discussion in the Linux community, as many organizations relied on CentOS Linux for stable, long-term server deployments. Community-led initiatives such as Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux were launched to fill the gap left by CentOS Linux's discontinuation. CentOS Stream continued to be developed as a rolling distribution, with major versions aligned to RHEL major releases. It is used by developers and partners who want to test and contribute to the RHEL development process. The brand remains a community project sponsored by Red Hat, which is itself a subsidiary of IBM following IBM's acquisition of Red Hat in 2019.

• 2021

  CentOS Linux reaches end of life; CentOS Stream continues as the main CentOS offering.

• 2020

  Red Hat announces CentOS Linux will be discontinued at the end of 2021, with CentOS Stream becoming the project's primary focus.

• 2019

  CentOS Stream introduced as a rolling-preview edition.

• 2014

  Red Hat announces sponsorship of the CentOS Project.

Rolling-preview Linux distribution upstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, aimed at developers and partners who want early access to RHEL changes.

• CentOS Stream 8

  Rolling-preview distribution aligned with RHEL 8 development.

• CentOS Stream 9

  Rolling-preview distribution aligned with RHEL 9 development.

• CentOS Stream 10

  Rolling-preview distribution aligned with RHEL 10 development.

1. 1Red Hat introduces rolling release CentOS Stream - ZDNETzdnet.com