What is CentOS Stream?

Published January 8, 2019 •

CentOS Stream is a Linux® development platform where open source community members can contribute to Red Hat® Enterprise Linux in tandem with Red Hat developers.

As part of Red Hat’s open source development model, Red Hat develops the Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code in CentOS Stream before releasing new Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions—making CentOS Stream a preview of future Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases.

CentOS Stream is an important part of the larger Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code development process:

Fedora: The upstream project on which future Red Hat Enterprise Linux major releases are based. This is where significant operating system (OS) innovations are introduced.
CentOS Stream: An upstream open source development platform where you can develop, test, and contribute to a continuously delivered distribution that tracks just ahead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux: A production-grade operating system that provides a more secure, supported, and flexible foundation for critical workloads and applications.

Keep learning about CentOS Stream

Download CentOS Stream

Community contributors to CentOS Stream get early access to the same code Red Hat developers and engineers use to produce the next version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Hardware partners and application developers can test their solutions, checking that everything works as it should with the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Community members can contribute new features and patches that can improve the capabilities and security of the next Red Hat Enterprise Linux release.
Users of CentOS Stream can share feedback without having to wait for the next Red Hat Enterprise Linux release.

Contribute to the project

For production use: Migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Convert2RHEL.

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux development or testing: Download CentOS Stream.

For individual developers: Get a no-cost developer subscription.

For Red Hat customer development teams: Get a no-cost developer subscription for teams.

For containerized apps: Use the Red Hat Universal Base Image (UBI).

For upstream OS innovation: Get involved in the Fedora project.

For software resale or hardware compatibility: Join Red Hat Partner Connect.

Choose the right Linux distro

Migrate from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream