The Elastic Stack's 5.4 release introduced CentOS 7 as the standardized base for its official Docker images, replacing the previously used Alpine Linux. This change aims to create a more cohesive and improved user experience across Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Beats by providing a common operating system foundation. While Alpine Linux is appreciated for its minimalistic and security-focused nature, its small image size was not fully realized due to the heavy dependencies of Elastic's products, particularly those relying on the JVM. The transition to CentOS 7, with its larger but more feature-complete base, offers benefits such as greater stability and reduced network transfer size due to layer reuse. Additionally, CentOS's use of GNU libc, a more established library than Alpine's musl libc, addresses several technical challenges and enhances system reliability. Elastic encourages users to engage in forums and report issues to improve their experience with Docker images in the Elastic Stack.