CentOS 8 officially released

**CentOS 8 is officially released! **

CentOS 8 and RedHat Enterprise Linux 8 release the same version, which are based on Fedora 28 and kernel 4.18. Tools that support traditional and emerging workloads provide users with a stable, secure, consistent foundation, and cross-hybrid Cloud deployment. CentOS fully complies with Red Hat's redistribution policy and strives to be fully functionally compatible with upstream products. CentOS's modifications to components are mainly to remove Red Hat's trademarks and artwork. This version also includes the brand new CentOS Streams, Centos Stream is a rolling Linux distribution, which exists between the upstream development of Fedora Linux and the downstream development of RHEL. You can think of CentOS Streams as a version to experience the latest Red Hat Linux features without having to wait too long.

The key points of this release include:

Release/Repository

CentOS 8 is mainly distributed through two repositories: 1) BaseOS 2) AppStream;
BaseOS repository: mainly includes the core of the operating system function, provided in RPM format;
AppStream Repository: It mainly includes user space applications, supports new expansion modules in the traditional RPM format, and can install multiple versions of components;

Software management

YUM package manager is based on DNF technology, has improved performance, supports modular content, and provides stable API and other tool integration;

Shell scripts and command line tools

RHEL 8 mainly provides version control tools: 1) Git 2.18: distributed control tool with distributed architecture; 2) Mercurial 4.8: lightweight distributed version control tool, which can effectively handle large projects; 3) Subversion 1.10: centralized version control tool

Dynamic programming language, web and database server

Python 3.6 is the default Python environment in RHEL 8, with limited support for Python 2.7;
Node.js is a new feature in RHEL. Other dynamic programming languages mainly include: PHP 7.2, Ruby 2.5, Perl 5.26, SWIG 3.0;
The database server is provided in RHEL 8, which mainly includes: MariaDB 10.3, MySQL 8.0, PostgreSQL 10, PostgreSQL 9.6 and Redis 5.
RHEL 8 provides Apache HTTP Server 2.4 and introduces a new web server: nginx 1.14.
Squid version has been upgraded to 4.4, and a new proxy cache server: Varnish Cache 6.0 is also provided.

desktop

GNOME Shell has been upgraded to 3.28. Mainly include: 1) GNOME Boxes new features; 2) New on-screen keyboard; 3) Expanded device support, integrated Thunderbolt 3 interface; 4) GNOME software, dconf-editor and GNOME terminal improvements;
GNOME session and GNOME display manager use Wayland as the default display server, which is still available in RHEL 7's default display server;

Installer and image creation

Anaconda installation program can use LUKS2 disk encryption, and the installation system supports NVDIMM devices;
The image generator tool can create a custom system image containing other program packages, can be accessed through a graphical user interface, and can output multiple formats;
RHEL 8 supports the use of the hardware management console HMC and the support element SE on the IBM Z host to install from the DVD;

Core kernel

The extended function enables the user space to attach custom programs to various points, mainly including: (sockets, trace points, packet reception) for receiving and processing data;
BPF is a tool for creating effective kernel tracking and manipulation programs;

File system and storage

The LUKS2 format replaces the old LUKS1 format, and the dm-crypt subsystem and cryptsetup tool are used as the default LUKS2 encrypted volume format;

Safety

System-wide password policies are applied by default, mainly covering TLS, IPsec, SSH, DNSSEC and Kerberos protocols. Administrators can use this command: update-crypto-policies to easily switch between different modes: default, legacy, future and fips;
Support smart card and hardware security module (for HSM) PKCS#11

The internet

The nftables framework replaces the iptables default network packet filtering tool;
The firewalld daemon uses nftables as the default backend;
IPVLAN virtual network driver that supports the network connection of multiple containers;
eXpress Data Path (XDP), XDP for Traffic Control (tc), and Address Family eXpress Data Path (AF_XDP), which can be used as part of Berkeley Packet Filtering (eBPF) extended features;

Virtualization

Virtualization supports modern PCI Express-based computer types, which are automatically configured in virtual machines created in RHEL 8. The functions and compatibility of virtual devices have been gradually improved;
Support RHEL 8 Web console to create and manage virtual machines; QEMU emulator introduces sandbox function, call
QEMU can implement configurable restrictions on which systems to make virtual machines more secure;

Compiler and development tools

The GCC compiler is updated to version 8.2, which supports the latest C++ language standard version, better optimization, new code enhancement technology, improved warnings and new hardware features.
Now, various tools for code generation, operation and debugging can experimentally handle the DWARF5 debugging information format;
The kernel supports eBPF tracing and can be used in some tools, such as BCC, PCP and SystemTap;
The glibc library was upgraded to 2.28 to support Unicode 11, and the updated Linux system calls. The key improvements are mainly in the DNS stub resolver, additional security enhancements and performance improvements;
RHEL 8 provides OpenJDK 11, OpenJDK 8, IcedTea-Web, and different Java tools such as Ant, Maven, or Scala;

High availability and clustering

The cluster resource manager has been upgraded to version 2.0.0, and a series of bugs and improvements have been fixed;
In RHEL 8, the pcs configuration system fully supports Corosync 3 knet, and node names;

Distribution for CentOS Linux 8 and CentOS streaming

https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2019-September/023449.html

Full RedHat Enterprise Linux 8 Release Notes

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/8/html/8.0_release_notes/overview