[rdo-dev] Update on RDO: A Shift to Containers

*Dear RDO Community/Stakeholders,This email provides an important update regarding the RDO project and its future direction which marks a significant change in how RDO content will be delivered.End of RDO RPM BuildsHistorically, RDO provided RPM-based rebuilds of upstream OpenStack packages. Due to insufficient contributors, the continuous RDO rpm builds that were released through the CentOS Cloud SIG have been officially discontinued as of the Epoxy release.Introducing the New RDO: Container FocusThe future of RDO will be focused entirely on containers. This is a pivot from our traditional RPM delivery, as RDO did not previously focus on containers.RDO will be transitioning to Source-to-Image (S2I) builds for service containers. This work will be starting shortly within the github.com/openstack-k8s-operators <http://github.com/openstack-k8s-operators> organization, and these new container builds will essentially be the "new RDO".Timeline and Usage: - This transition work has not yet begun. The timeline is not committed, but the work is currently expected to be available for the Hibiscus release in late 2026. The final delivery location of those images is still to be determined.- These containers are primarily intended to be consumed via the operators provided in the openstack-k8s-operators GitHub organization.- While nothing explicitly prevents these containers from being used elsewhere, this is not currently part of the plan. Community involvement and feedback for broader usage are welcome including within OKD and the okderators.- Please note that the operators in this organization are currently only developed and tested on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.Thank you for your understanding and continued support as we make this important shift. We look forward to engaging with the community on this new path forward.Sincerely,* Amy