The CentOS Project announced the general availability of the latest major release of the CentOS Stream distribution, CentOS Stream 9. CentOS Stream will provide each point-release of RHEL. Users who want to test CentOS Stream can download the ISO files from its official mirrors for 64-bit x86 (x86_64 v2+), 64-bit ARM (AArch64), IBM Z (s390x Z14+), and IBM POWER (ppc64le POWER9+) architectures.
Based on Fedora 34
The CentOS Project announced that each major CentOS Stream release starts from a stable Fedora Linux release. CentOS Stream 9 begins with Fedora 34, which uses the same code base from which RHEL 9 is built.
The team also stated that the CentOS community and the RHEL engineering team are collaborating for the development of CentOS Stream. The team also stated that CentOS Stream ultimately becomes RHEL, thus contributors have the opportunity to influence the future RHEL builds. CentOS Stream, upstream of RHEL, also offers an environment for applications designed for RHEL.
The arrival of CentOS Linux 9 also means that CentOS Linux 8 is reaching the end of life and it won’t be supported anymore. According to the official announcement, CentOS Linux 8 will reach End Of Life on December 31st, 2021. However, users who want to use CentOS Linux 8 can prefer CloudLinux or other third-party solutions for better support. Thousands of users also switched from CentOS Linux 8 to AlmaLinux as an alternative solution due to its community and long-term support.