= Redhat Or Debian =

My first Linux distro was Redhat 2.  I've used RPM-based Redhat derivatives for more than two decades, switching to Scientific Linux (a CentOS downstream clone, long term support) when that community emerged.  I typically upgrade a to a newer LTS distro about a year after release.

Late in 2020, Redhat abruptly (and without warning) discontinued long term support for CentOS, after absorbing the project and promising (face to face to me at OSCON) five years ago that CentOS would continue as before.  

I was in the middle of a long-overdue server upgrade to "long term support" CentOS 8, which should have lasted for a decade, but instead will go away at the end of 2021.  '''Long Term Support''' is the key - I rarely need new features, but I do want a well tested, secure distro.

Debian is from the community, not from an IBM-owned subsidiary.  Communities can go off the rails, but if there are enough members disagreeing with a big change, they fork to a new community.  The recent emergence of the Rocky Linux community is a welcome example of such a fork, but their success is not guaranteed, especially if Redhat/IBM finds a way to scuttle the effort, perhaps unleashing their formidable legal department.  

Learning enough about Debian to make the move, and remembering enough in old age to continue to support Debian after the move, is a big risk for me.  On the other hand, Redhat can't be trusted.  So what to do?

MoreLater