Edit: Follow up articles: A more in-depth article is at: http://aajkyakaroon.blogspot.com/2018/06/rhel-8-release-date-update-2-chasing.html and an older one here: http://aajkyakaroon.blogspot.com/2017/09/rhel-8-release-date-update.html
Stating the obvious -> This blog post is just my own speculation.
RHEL 7 / CentOS 7 was a very good release and it got a software bump with its 7.2 point release. On release RHEL 7 had Gnome version 3.8 (from Fedora 19) and with RHEL 7.2 that got bumped to Gnome 3.14 (from Fedora 21).
It has already been more than 3 years since the release of RHEL 7. How time flies. And, it is showing its old age already. One major technology lacking in RHEL 7 is Flatpak. Even though the Flatpak technology has been made by the RedHat people, it still wont be included in RHEL 7 (in my opinion) since Flatpak requires at least a kernel version greater than 4.0 and RHEL 7 is stuck at kernel version 3.10. And, there has been no precedence where RHEL has been updated with a new kernel version.
So, RHEL 7 is already obsolete for people wanting to work with Flatpak. God bless that it is about time for a RHEL refresh. Now my speculations:
RHEL 8 will be based on Fedora 25 (why not Fedora 24, well because Fedora 25 was released just 5 months after Fedora 24 was released. Fedora 25 supports the latest version of Flatpak. Currently as of this writing, Fedora 24 supports Flatpak version 0.8.7 and Fedora 25 supports Flatpak version 0.9.6 - the latest version of Flatpak as of this writing is 0.9.6)
RHEL 8 will have Linux Kernel version 4.9. The 4.9 version is the latest, (as of this writing) long term kernel. The kernel in Fedora 25 is 4.8 which has proved to be extremely useful in clearing out many problems in wireless connectivity and more. The 4.9 kernel will be a better fit as it is a long term kernel.
RHEL 8 will have Gnome 3.22 on release and maybe upgraded to 3.24 in a future point release. Fedora 25 has Gnome 3.22 and Fedora 26 has Gnome 3.24, these seem the most acceptable path at the moment to me.
Release date of RHEL 8? Hmm, maybe by the turn of next year, i.e. around February 2018 would be a nice bet. The last two major releases of RHEL 6 and RHEL 7 took ~ 3 yr 8 month and 3 yr 7 month respectively from their previous releases. I would think this is a good timeframe to speculate.
RHEL 7 was released on 10 Jun 2014, adding the timeframe we get a Feb 2018 date. Also from beta to a full release RHEL takes almost 6 months. So, be prepared for a beta release of RHEL 8 in August 2017.
Stating the obvious -> This blog post is just my own speculation.
RHEL 7 / CentOS 7 was a very good release and it got a software bump with its 7.2 point release. On release RHEL 7 had Gnome version 3.8 (from Fedora 19) and with RHEL 7.2 that got bumped to Gnome 3.14 (from Fedora 21).
It has already been more than 3 years since the release of RHEL 7. How time flies. And, it is showing its old age already. One major technology lacking in RHEL 7 is Flatpak. Even though the Flatpak technology has been made by the RedHat people, it still wont be included in RHEL 7 (in my opinion) since Flatpak requires at least a kernel version greater than 4.0 and RHEL 7 is stuck at kernel version 3.10. And, there has been no precedence where RHEL has been updated with a new kernel version.
So, RHEL 7 is already obsolete for people wanting to work with Flatpak. God bless that it is about time for a RHEL refresh. Now my speculations:
RHEL 8 will be based on Fedora 25 (why not Fedora 24, well because Fedora 25 was released just 5 months after Fedora 24 was released. Fedora 25 supports the latest version of Flatpak. Currently as of this writing, Fedora 24 supports Flatpak version 0.8.7 and Fedora 25 supports Flatpak version 0.9.6 - the latest version of Flatpak as of this writing is 0.9.6)
RHEL 8 will have Linux Kernel version 4.9. The 4.9 version is the latest, (as of this writing) long term kernel. The kernel in Fedora 25 is 4.8 which has proved to be extremely useful in clearing out many problems in wireless connectivity and more. The 4.9 kernel will be a better fit as it is a long term kernel.
RHEL 8 will have Gnome 3.22 on release and maybe upgraded to 3.24 in a future point release. Fedora 25 has Gnome 3.22 and Fedora 26 has Gnome 3.24, these seem the most acceptable path at the moment to me.
Release date of RHEL 8? Hmm, maybe by the turn of next year, i.e. around February 2018 would be a nice bet. The last two major releases of RHEL 6 and RHEL 7 took ~ 3 yr 8 month and 3 yr 7 month respectively from their previous releases. I would think this is a good timeframe to speculate.
RHEL 7 was released on 10 Jun 2014, adding the timeframe we get a Feb 2018 date. Also from beta to a full release RHEL takes almost 6 months. So, be prepared for a beta release of RHEL 8 in August 2017.
