CentOS Stream: Enterprise Linux Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the Enterprise Linux Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: community project, sponsored by Red Hat
Owner: CentOS Project board (ten members, Red Hat liaison, Community Architect employed by Red Hat); Red Hat funds the infrastructure
Licence: Free, open-source licences; no subscription and no support offering
Latest release: CentOS Stream 10 (continuous; GA 2024-12-12 with kernel 6.12); Stream 9 continues
Support lifecycle: About five years per stream, ending with the full support phase of the matching RHEL major; no minor releases, no in-place path between streams documented
Next milestone: Stream 9 end of life 2027-05-31; Pagure sunset and RPM workflows moving to Konflux (feedback requested June 2026)
Support window: About 5 years, no extension: Stream 9 to 2027-05-31, Stream 10 to 2030-05-31; Stream 8 ended 2024-05-31 (endoflife.date and the Stream 10 announcement)
Tier: Community distribution
Archetype: Vendor-run upstream
Evidence grade: B. The CentOS governance page, board recaps and news posts from 2025 and 2026, the Stream 10 announcement and Red Hat's 2023 source post were read from primary sources. Stream end dates come from endoflife.date; the architectures per stream and the Stream 10 CPU baseline are background knowledge.

Scope of the scores: CentOS Stream is the upstream of the next RHEL minor release; the rebuilds are scored separately. It publishes no formal security errata, so the security score counts fixes that arrive as ordinary package updates. Scores start in 2019, when Stream 8 appeared; CentOS Linux (2004 to 2024) is a milestone only.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	55.0 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+1.5 points (2019 to 2022: +1.0)	higher is better
Credibility	15.0 / 25	higher is better
Sustainability risk	14.0 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	2.5 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	6.5 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	2.0 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	49.3 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Lifecycle and upgrades (15)	n/a	2	2	2
Security and compliance (15)	n/a	2.5	2.5	3
Hardware and architectures (10)	n/a	3	3.5	3.5
Virtualization and cloud images (10)	n/a	3	3	3
Containers and Kubernetes host (10)	n/a	3.5	3.5	3.5
Software currency and packaging (10)	n/a	4	4	4
Fleet management and automation (10)	n/a	1.5	1.5	1.5
Storage and filesystems (5)	n/a	4	4	4
Enterprise integration and certifications (5)	n/a	2	2	2
AI and GPU readiness (10)	n/a	1.5	1.5	1.5
Total / 100	n/a	52.5	53.5	55.0

Year by year: 2019: 52.5 · 2020: 52.5 · 2021: 53.5 · 2022: 53.5 · 2023: 53.5 · 2024: 53.5 · 2025: 55.0 · 2026: 55.0

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2021	Hardware and architectures	3 → 3.5	+1.0	Stream 9: four architectures including s390x
2025	Security and compliance	2.5 → 3	+1.5	Secure Boot on Stream 9 (2025-09) and Stream 10 (2025-12)

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-06	Red Hat makes CentOS Stream the only public source for RHEL-related code	Licensing	P
2024-05	Stream 8 end of life on 2024-05-31	Lifecycle	P
2024-12	Stream 10 GA with kernel 6.12, about five months before RHEL 10.0; maintained to 2030	Lifecycle	P
2025-09	Secure Boot available on Stream 9	Security	C
2025-11	Board discusses the GitLab renewal for CentOS and Fedora	Governance	P
2025-12	Secure Boot working on Stream 9 and 10	Security	C
2026-01	AI policy and an AI Enablement SIG proposal discussed at the board	AI	V
2026-03	Accelerated Infrastructure Enablement SIG approved	AI	C
2026-06	Pagure sunset; RPM workflows move to Konflux	Packaging	P

Centre of gravity: Lifecycle (2), Security (2), AI (2)
Blind spots (no items): Hardware, Virtualization and cloud, Containers, Fleet management, Storage, Enterprise integration
Driver mix: Vision 11%, Customer need 33%, Market window 0%, Upstream 0%, Portfolio 56%
Idea-to-need index: 0.25 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 15.0 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	3	Continuous updates; new streams arrive on Red Hat's major release calendar with no published dates
Roadmap transparency	4	Board meetings recorded and published, monthly news, open SIG process; no written roadmap
Say-do	3	Since 2023 the few announced items shipped (Stream 10, Secure Boot); the 2020 CentOS Linux reversal remains the reference case for a sponsor changing course
Velocity	3	Several substantive changes per cycle, all from Red Hat's RHEL engineering
Lifecycle stability	2	CentOS Linux 8 ended in 2021 instead of 2029; Stream 8 ended 2024-05-31; no minor releases to hold

Sustainability risk: 14.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Maintainer concentration	4	Nearly all engineering and release work is done by Red Hat staff
Backer health	1	Red Hat is a profitable IBM subsidiary and funds the infrastructure
Licence-change risk	3.5	Red Hat changed the meaning of CentOS in 2020 and the source policy in 2023 and owns the trademark
Abandonment signs	2	Stream 10 is active; Stream 8 ended on schedule; build infrastructure is moving to Konflux
Security response	3.5	No formal security errata; fixes arrive as package updates without advisories or published response times

Technical lock-in: 2.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	0.5	RPM, qcow2, OCI
Export path	1	No supported in-place path to RHEL or a rebuild; reinstall or a subscription switch
Stack coupling	0	No management stack required
Hardware / cloud coupling	0.5	Any x86-64 or arm64 server; images from the Cloud SIG
Skills and tooling coupling	0.5	RHEL skills transfer one to one

Integrator fit: 6.5 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	1	No partner programme; companies take part through SIGs
Multi-tenancy and self-service	0.5	No management product
API and infrastructure-as-code	2.5	Standard EL tooling: Ansible, community Terraform, web console API
Skills and certification	2.5	RHEL skills transfer; no certification of its own

AI leverage: 2.0 / 20

How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI workload support	1	1	1	2019: NVIDIA driver from NVIDIA's repository
AI platform stack	0	0	0	2019: None
AI-assisted operations	0	0	0	2019: None
Agent openness	1	1	1	2019: Web console API and Ansible; no agent interface

Year by year: 2019: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2026: 2

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 2 AI items announced; 0 GA, 0 still preview, 2 pending, 0 dropped. Both items are SIG proposals or approvals, with nothing shipped yet.

CentOS Stream has no AI content of its own. The 2026 SIG proposals for AI enablement and accelerated infrastructure are community groups and will count only when they publish packages or images.

Reading

CentOS Stream scores low on lifecycle and fleet because it is built for a different job: it is the open development branch of RHEL, with current packages and no release to pin. Its software is RHEL's software a few months early, which is why packaging and storage match the rebuilds. The sustainability risk is concentrated in one sponsor that has changed course twice, and the lack of formal security errata is the first thing a regulated buyer should check. It suits teams that accept a continuously updated EL base; anyone looking for a replacement for CentOS Linux should look at the rebuilds.

Open questions and items to re-score

Architectures per stream (the 2021 s390x step) rest on background knowledge, grade C.
x86-64-v3 baseline for Stream 10 is assumed from RHEL 10, not verified.
No formal security errata: confirm before the next edition whether the project publishes advisories anywhere.
AI policy and the AI Enablement SIG outcome not found.
Konflux migration date not published.
CentOS Linux 7 end (2024-06-30) was confirmed on a Red Hat page and CentOS Linux 8 end (2021-12-31) on centos.org; both are milestones outside the scored years.