Comment Not true, just a clickbait title, still Alma (Score 1) 51
CERN is moving from RHEL to Debian is a good headline, but not really true.
CERN is moving only about 2,200 accelerator Front-End Computers to Debian - basically industrial/embedded machines that talk to custom hardware. Data-center and user systems are still on RHEL/AlmaLinux.
The interesting part is why.
These boxes are expected to run for ages, often with custom PCI hardware, drivers, and kernels. RHEL’s newer x86 baseline made that painful: CERN estimated roughly 65% of those systems would need hardware replacement.
So this isn't "CERN abandoned RHEL."
It's more like: enterprise Linux works great for servers; it's a worse fit for a weird industrial PC that needs to keep controlling the same million-dollar machine for 20 years.
CERN is moving only about 2,200 accelerator Front-End Computers to Debian - basically industrial/embedded machines that talk to custom hardware. Data-center and user systems are still on RHEL/AlmaLinux.
The interesting part is why.
These boxes are expected to run for ages, often with custom PCI hardware, drivers, and kernels. RHEL’s newer x86 baseline made that painful: CERN estimated roughly 65% of those systems would need hardware replacement.
So this isn't "CERN abandoned RHEL."
It's more like: enterprise Linux works great for servers; it's a worse fit for a weird industrial PC that needs to keep controlling the same million-dollar machine for 20 years.
