The release of the Rocky Linux 9.3 distribution has been announced, aimed at creating a free version of RHEL that can serve as a replacement for the classic CentOS. This distribution is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as an alternative to RHEL 9.3 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. Live versions with GNOME and Xfce desktops are additionally offered, published for the x86_64 architecture (the live version with KDE is delayed).
Like in classic CentOS, the changes made to the Rocky Linux packages focus on removing the ties to the Red Hat brand and deleting RHEL-specific packages such as redhat-*, insights-client, and subscription-manager-migration*. A review of the changes in Rocky Linux 9.3 can be found in the announcement for RHEL 9.3. Among the Rocky Linux-specific changes, it is noteworthy that the openldap-servers-2.6.3 packages are delivered in a separate repository, along with NFV packages for virtualization of network components developed by the SIG group NFV (Network Functions Virtualization). Rocky Linux also supports the CRB (Code Ready Builder with additional developer packages, replacing PowerTools), RT (real-time operation packages), HighAvailability, ResilientStorage, and SAPHANA (packages for SAP HANA) repositories. An experimental package with the Linux kernel — kernel-uki has been added, providing a unified UKI (Unified Kernel Image) certified with a separate key for SecureBoot.
Unlike previous releases, the OpenELA repository, supported jointly with Oracle and SUSE, has been used as the source of the source packages for building Rocky Linux 9.3. This change is due to Red Hat ceasing to publish the source texts of RHEL RPM packages in the public repository git.centos.org. Source packages are now only provided to clients through a closed section of the website, where a user agreement (EULA) is in effect, prohibiting the redistribution of these materials, making it impossible to use these packages for creating derivative distributions. The source texts remain available in the CentOS Stream repository, but it is not fully synchronized with RHEL, and the most recent package versions 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.
In addition to Rocky Linux, alternatives to classic CentOS include AlmaLinux (developed by CloudLinux in collaboration with the community), VzLinux (prepared by Virtuozzo), Oracle Linux, SUSE Liberty Linux, and EuroLinux. Furthermore, Red Hat has provided the opportunity for free use of RHEL in organizations developing open-source software and in environments of individual developers with up to 16 virtual or physical systems.
Source: opennet.ru
