CentOS 7.7 officially released, but there’s more to come

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, the CentOS Linux project announced the release and availability of CentOS Linux 7 (1908), or CentOS 7.7, for the x86_64 architecture.

It is the first release of the popular Linux distro from the CentOS Linux project since their release of CentOS Linux 7 (1810), commonly referred to as CentOS 7.6, in December of last year.

CentOS 7.7 is derived from the Red Hat Enterprise 7.7 source code. Significant changes in CentOS Linux 7 (1908), or CentOS Linux 7.7 include:

• Python 3 availability.  Users who install the Python 3 package should have the Python 3.6 interpreter
• Chrony (CentOS’s default NTP implementation) has been updated to Chrony version 3.4
• BIND (CentOS’s default DNS application) has been updated to BIND version 9.11
• Updated and improved security profiles in Anaconda (CentOS’s default package manager)
• The Linux kernel version has been updated to Linux kernel version 3.10.0-1062.1.1.el7.x86_64
• Various other package and security updates from upstream

Upgrading to CentOS 7.7

CentOS Linux is a rolling-release, so upgrading is as simple as two commands:

# sudo yum check-update
# sudo yum update

A system reboot is also required:

# sudo shutdown -r now

alternatively, simply

# sudo reboot

Surprisingly, on the heels of Tuesday’s CentOS 7.7 release, the CentOS Project is projecting that CentOS Linux 8.0 will be released next Tuesday on 24 September 2019.

The next version of #CentOS is being released September 24 and will be announced in all the usual places.

— CentOS Project (@CentOSProject) September 16, 2019

The CentOS 8 Wiki page is reporting the same release date for CentOS 8.0. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 was released earlier this year in March. In addition to the x86_64 architecture, CentOS Linux 7.7 is also available for the i386, armhp, aarch64, ppc64, POWER9, and ppc64le architectures.

For those new to CentOS, let me quickly brief, CentOS (Community Enterprise Operating System), first released in 2004, is a 100% compatible rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).  It is a popular distro in the Linux community, particularly for those uses in need of enterprise-class OS stability without the support and certification costs.

FOSS Linux will keep readers updated on next week’s scheduled release of CentOS 8.0.