Farewell, Red Hat: How Changes Will Impact OEL and CentOS Users

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) has long been the largest distributor of Linux. It’s renowned for its enterprise-grade features, support, and reliability, which makes it a top choice for organizations worldwide. IBM acquired Red Hat in 2019, bringing significant changes to the Linux ecosystem, which have in turn had a profound impact on CentOS and Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) users.

As a requirement of opensource licensing, Red Hat gave out code at no cost, offering a free, popular alternative. A downstream project itself of the Linux Kernel, RHEL was based off the Fedora Core Community project. (Most of Red Hat’s code itself they did not create; it, too, was licensed through opensource.) It was the first branch of community code – from which Oracle in turn branched out. This allowed for high compatibility and is an opensource programming standard. Once under the purview of IBM, Red Hat was made to stop this practice, in a move on IBM’s part aimed at protecting access to RHEL and ensuring compliance with the General Public License (GPL).

Historical context of Linux distributions

Oracle, a major player in the tech industry, takes RHEL and tweaks it to release its own distribution, known as Oracle Enterprise Linux, or OEL. This distribution offers several attractive benefits, including half the support cost as compared to IBM/RH, and it’s free when run on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI.) OEL also provides support for migration between versions of the product – a feature RHEL does not offer. This flexibility is especially valuable when moving from RHEL 7 to 8 or higher.

CentOS was initially a downstream, community-driven version of RHEL, without Red Hat branding and support. It was commonly used on non-production systems while RHEL was preferred for paid support on production servers. The original CentOS has since evolved into CentOS Stream, which has a different development model and is no longer binary-compatible with RHEL. This transition has left some users uncertain about its future.

Binary Compatibility

Binary compatibility between OEL, RHEL, and CentOS matters because it allows applications to run seamlessly on different systems without requiring recompilation. This compatibility was beneficial for those developing programs to run on multiple operating systems, as applications developed for RHEL would also run on CentOS and vice versa.

IBM cuts off RHEL source code

IBM’s decision to close off the RHEL source code was driven by the need to protect the de facto standard of support contracts, ensuring compatibility, and preventing dilution of the Red Hat brand due to the proliferation of knock-off distributions. As noted above, CentOS Stream (while representing a forward-looking approach), is no longer binary-compatible with RHEL, leaving many users searching for an alternative.

In response to these changes, the OpenELA initiative emerged, involving Rocky Linux, SUSE, and Oracle Linux. These entities united as a non-profit to create an open enterprise Linux distribution to replace RHEL as a central open-source repository. Currently, OEL and CentOS are binary compatible with RHEL up to version 9.2. However, the future of this compatibility remains undetermined, which again leaves users on shaky ground.

Looking ahead with JD Edwards

JD Edwards customers running on OEL may face challenges since JDE is certified against OEL. Oracle has a vested interest in maintaining compatibility, but users should stay informed about any future developments. Oracle focuses mainly on their products and their customers, and they will pick up anything where Red Hat leaves it.

Clients running older CentOS versions have a few options available to them. They can switch to OEL, which provides migration paths. They can choose to stay with their current CentOS version but may face challenges in terms of updates. They can transition altogether to CentOS Stream. Another option is to consider Rocky Linux if maintaining binary compatibility is a priority, although this might involve adapting to a new operating system.

If a client is currently running RHEL, they can choose to stay put, or consider transitioning to OEL. For JDE customers, it is recommended to stay with RHEL until they plan to upgrade. When transitioning from RHEL 7 to 8 or higher, switching to OEL may be advantageous.

Taking the plunge

No matter your reasoning for making the switch, ERP Suites can help ease a migration experience. For example, we recently helped support a large healthcare provider as they migrated off-prem to OCI. Differences still exist between Red Hat’s definition of support and Oracle’s definition of support, but with ERP Suites on hand, we were able to help our client execute their strategy as seamlessly as possible. We can support any number of JD Edwards configurations and are able to interchange them as necessary for you.

Anytime you’re moving from Red Hat to OEL, it’s a major change. We are happy to hear from you and see how we can help.