CentOS Stream 10: New and Notable Changes

CentOS Stream 10 is based on Fedora 40 and came out in December of 2024, months ahead of the GA release of RHEL 10. Named "Coughlan" after Tom Coughlan, one the contributors to the CentOS project who passed away in 2023, CentOS Stream 10 includes several significant updates and improvements. 

In this blog, our expert explores the key changes and new features in CentOS Stream 10 and offers considerations for enterprise teams considering the rolling release distro for production workloads.

A Quick Recap on the CentOS Stream Project

CentOS Stream has an interesting history, with some notable developments in the past few years. After announcing in 2020 that CentOS Linux would be discontinued in favor of focusing on CentOS Stream, last year Red Hat ruffled more feathers by announcing that CentOS Stream would become the sole repository for RHEL source code. CentOS Stream 8, the first release, reached end of life in May 2024; CentOS Stream 9 has been out since 2021. 

On June 6, 2024, the CentOS Project posted links to the CentOS Stream 10 compose images, install ISOs, and container images with the following message: “Please note the compose is still taking shape. Packages are still being added and even removed at this point. Not all packages are fully onboarded to gating, so just some updates are landing. Packages are being moved between repositories. Comps groups are being updated…” Developers were encouraged to test and share feedback.

Fast forward six months: CentOS Stream 10 was released on December 12, 2024, and will be actively supported for roughly five years, until RHEL 10 enters its maintenance phase. 

CentOS Stream vs. CentOS Linux

The main difference between CentOS Stream and CentOS Linux is that CentOS Stream is upstream of RHEL, with packages planned for upcoming releases, and CentOS Linux is a rebuild of the current RHEL release.

Another key difference is how updates are made in the two distributions. For CentOS Linux, new minor versions consist of large batches of updates, with smaller updates between versions. Rather than batch updates, packages in CentOS Stream are updated as they are ready, in a continuous stream, and there are no minor versions. 

Before all versions reached end of life, CentOS Linux had a community support lifecycle of ten years, like RHEL and many other Enterprise Linux distributions. CentOS Stream has a shorter lifecycle of five years, with EOL based on when the corresponding RHEL release leaves Full Support and enters its Maintenance Phase (security updates only). 

How Long Will CentOS Stream 9 Be Supported?

CentOS Stream 9 will be supported until May 31, 2027, when RHEL 9 leaves Full Support.  

CentOS Stream 10 Release Date

CentOS Stream is upstream of RHEL and was released on December 12, 2024. 

Notable Changes in CentOS Stream 10 

• Kernel: CentOS Stream 10 ships with linux kernel 6.12, rather than 5.14 that CentOS Stream 9 used.
• Programming language support/compilers: CentOS Stream 10 has GCC 14.2.1 (instead of GCC 11.5), and Python 3.12 (instead of Python 3.9).
• CPU compatibility and capabilities: The v3 microarchitecture level is required to install.
• Performance: Phoronix ran some benchmarks, and a thorough comparison of performance is available here. That is for Arm64 instead of x86_64, but should still be comparable.
• Removals:
  • Xorg is no longer included. Wayland is the default display stack, and Xwayland is available as a compatibility layer.
  • Some graphical desktop applications, such as GIMP, LibreOffice, and Inkscape, have been removed. These will be run using Flatpak instead.
  • Secureboot does not currently work. It is blocked on a shim review.
  • Redis has been replaced with Valkey (a Redis fork). 

Using CentOS Stream in Production

There is some debate over whether enterprises should use CentOS Stream in production. Some say the rolling release model makes it too unstable and that it's more of a " beta testing ground" for features, or a preview of the next version of RHEL (though not everything in Stream may make it into RHEL). Red Hat explicitly says that CentOS Stream "is not designed for production use in enterprise environments" and recommends using RHEL as a CentOS alternative.

However, depending on your use case, using CentOS Stream for production workloads may not present any issues. Some teams like that Stream gives them access to bug fixes and new features before they become available in RHEL. The notion that CentOS Stream is fundamentally less stable or reliable than RHEL is not really accurate, as everything in Stream undergoes QA and testing, and has been accepted for the next minor RHEL release before being merged into Stream.  

The main difference between RHEL and CentOS Stream comes down to commercial support and services that RHEL provides to its paying subscribers.  

Still, a lot depends on your particular use case and infrastructure to determine whether or not CentOS Stream is the right fit. If you're unsure, talk to an OpenLogic Enterprise Architect about your environment — our team of experienced Linux experts can provide unbiased guidance.

CentOS Stream 10 Migration and Upgrade Considerations

As usual, you will want to test thoroughly before upgrading important systems. The new kernel version may not support older hardware, and with x86_64-v3 coming in the future, some older hardware may not work at all. Information about glibc-hwcaps can be found here. RHEL 9 did the same with x86_64-v2 and a simple test under Proxmox using x86-64-v2-AES produced a kernel panic during just an install, but x86-64-v3 succeeded. This still seems to be the case. 

With a new kernel, glibc, gcc, Python, and other changes, some existing software may not have library versions available to run the older version. Containers or VMs could mitigate the problem, however.

What to Expect from Future CentOS Stream Releases

In future CentOS Stream releases, you can expect continuous upgrades of packages, with new versions, security patches, and performance improvements. Future releases may introduce new features, such as updated kernels, newer versions of programming languages, and support for emerging hardware or software trends.

Final Thoughts 

CentOS Stream 10 proved to be an accurate preview of RHEL 10 — the first major release in four years. As to whether CentOS Stream 10 is a viable alternative to CentOS Linux or the best Linux distro for your organization, I recommend checking out this CentOS Stream checklist for guidance or downloading the Decision Maker's Guide to Enterprise Linux, which compares 20 different distros in terms of security, stability, use cases, and support. 

It's always a good idea to have technical support for your mission-critical workloads, and ideally, to work with experts who have full stack expertise to troubleshoot issues with updates and integrations. If you decide to use a FOSS Linux OS, it's wise to pair it with commercial support from OpenLogic so you always have immediate access to Enterprise Architects. 

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