SUMMARYCERN plans to migrate more than 2,200 industrial computers and embedded systems in its accelerator-control infrastructure to Debian 13 by the end of 2026. The systems support accelerator control, laboratory equipment, and other operational functions. CERN’s move follows its long use of RHEL and CentOS and was prompted in part by Red Hat’s default adoption of the x86-64-v2 compiler target, which CERN viewed as forcing older hardware out of service.
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. 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 CentOS Stream. 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."