CentOSs

CentOS is a free, community-supported Linux distribution that provides an open-source, binary-compatible platform built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is designed to offer a free alternative suitable for servers, with the goal of compatibility with RHEL applications and workloads.

CentOS was founded in 2004 by Gregory Kurtzer and grew as an independent project providing rebuilds of RHEL without Red Hat branding. In 2014 Red Hat began sponsoring CentOS and later broadened collaboration. In December 2020 Red Hat announced a shift from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream, a rolling-release distribution that sits upstream of RHEL. CentOS Linux reached end-of-life on December 31, 2021, ending the traditional point-in-time releases.

Today, CentOS primarily exists as CentOS Stream, which tracks ahead of RHEL and incorporates early access to changes that will appear in the next RHEL release. The term CentOSs is not an official product name; CentOS refers to the family, and CentOS Stream is the current mainstream variant. CentOS Linux is considered historical.

As with other RPM-based systems, CentOS uses the RPM package format and DNF (or yum) for package management. It inherits the stability and security updates of RHEL and is widely used for web servers, virtualization hosts, and enterprise-grade deployments that value free, community-supported software with long-term support characteristics. CentOS remains part of the broader Red Hat ecosystem, with CentOS Stream serving as the upstream development track for future RHEL releases.