CERN Transitioning From RHEL To Debian

The useful part

Longtime Slashdot reader Microsplat: CERN plans to have all 2,200+ industrial computers and embedded systems in its accelerator-control infrastructure running Debian 13 by the end of 2026. These are systems used for accelerator control, laboratory equipment and other operational functions... They also generate and interact with a hefty amount of data, although this Linux.com article refers more broadly to CERN's computing infrastructure.

How it works

• It's unclear whether the Debian migration covers all server infrastructure or what scientific-research-based systems are included.
• Our shops have done much the same in recent years, mostly due to CentOS and CFEngine getting the can.
• Phoronix adds some additional context in its article: CERN was a longtime RHEL/CentOS shop, previously co-maintained the Scientific Linux RHEL derivative, moved to CentOS in 2015, and later considered...
• CERN says Red Hat's adoption of the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag by default, which it viewed as "forced obsolescence" of older hardware, was the "straw that broke the camel's back." Read more of this...