The release of Rocky Linux 9.5 has been announced, aimed at creating a free build of RHEL capable of replacing classic CentOS. This distribution is binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as a substitute for RHEL 9.5 and CentOS 9 Stream. Support for the Rocky Linux 9 branch will continue until May 31, 2032. Installation ISO images of Rocky Linux are prepared for the x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, and s390x (IBM Z) architectures. Additionally, live images with GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, and Xfce desktops are offered, published for the x86_64 architecture.
Like classic CentOS, the changes made to the Rocky Linux packages are aimed at removing the Red Hat branding and eliminating RHEL-specific packages such as redhat-*, insights-client, and subscription-manager-migration*. An overview of the changes in Rocky Linux 9.5 can be found in the announcement for RHEL 9.5. Notable changes specific to Rocky Linux include the provision of a separate repository for the openldap-servers-2.6.6 package, and in the NFV repository, packages for virtualizing network components developed by the NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) SIG group. Rocky Linux also supports CRB (Code Ready Builder with additional developer packages, which replaced PowerTools), RT (real-time operation packages), HighAvailability, ResilientStorage, SAP, and SAP HANA (packages for SAP HANA). An experimental package with the Linux kernel—kernel-uki—has been added, providing a unified UKI (Unified Kernel Image), signed with a separate key for SecureBoot.
As a source of source packages for the formation of Rocky Linux 9.5, the OpenELA repository, maintained jointly with Oracle and SUSE, has been utilized. The change in development processes is due to Red Hat's cessation of providing the source texts of RHEL rpm packages in the public repository git.centos.org. Source packages are provided to clients of the company only through a closed section of the website, which operates under a user agreement (EULA) that prohibits the redistribution of this data, making it impossible to use these packages to create derivative distributions. The source texts remain available in the CentOS Stream repository, but it is not fully synchronized with RHEL, and the latest versions of packages do not always match those from RHEL.
The Rocky Linux distribution is developed under the auspices of the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF), registered as a Public Benefits Corporation, focused on public good rather than profit. The organization's owner is Gregory Kurtzer, the founder of CentOS, but management functions are delegated to a board of directors elected by community members involved in the project. Concurrently, to develop extended products based on Rocky Linux and to support the community of developers of this distribution, a commercial company, Ctrl IQ, has been established and has received $26 million in investments. Companies such as Google, Amazon Web Services, GitLab, MontaVista, 45Drives, OpenDrives, and NAVER Cloud have joined the development and financing of the project.
Additionally, it is worth noting that Oracle has formed the Oracle Linux 9.5 distribution, which is based on the package base of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 and is fully binary compatible with it. Unrestricted installation ISO images are available for download, sized 12 GB and 1.1 GB, prepared for x86_64 and ARM64 (aarch64) architectures. Oracle Linux 9 offers unlimited and free access to the yum repository with binary package updates addressing bugs (errata) and security issues. Separate supported repositories with Application Stream and CodeReady Builder package sets are also prepared for download.
In addition to the kernel package from RHEL (based on kernel 5.14), Oracle Linux offers its own Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 7 Update 3, based on Linux kernel 5.15 and optimized for use with Oracle's industrial software and hardware. The source code for the kernel, including a breakdown into separate patches, is available in Oracle's public Git repository. The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is installed by default, positioned as an alternative to the standard RHEL kernel package, and provides several extended features such as DTrace integration and improved Btrfs support. Besides the additional kernel functionality, the releases of Oracle Linux 9.5 and RHEL 9.5 are fully identical (the change log can be found in the RHEL 9.5 announcement).
Source: opennet.ru
