The release of the Rocky Linux 9.7 distribution has been introduced, aimed at creating a free build of RHEL that can take the place of the classic CentOS. The distribution is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as a substitute for RHEL 9.7 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 have been released for the x86_64 architecture. Rocky Linux 10.1, based on the RHEL 10 branch, was released last week.
As with classic CentOS, the changes made to the Rocky Linux packages involve removing the Red Hat branding and eliminating RHEL-specific packages, such as redhat-*, insights-client, and subscription-manager-migration*. Otherwise, the changes in Rocky Linux 9.7 align with those in RHEL 9.7.
Among the features specific to Rocky Linux, the provision of openldap 2.6.8, iftop 1.0, and nmon 16q packages in a separate plus repository can be noted, as well as packages for network virtualization components in the NFV repository developed by the NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) SIG group. Rocky Linux also supports the CRB (Code Ready Builder with additional developer packages, which has replaced PowerTools), RT (real-time operation packages), HighAvailability, ResilientStorage, SAP, and SAPHANA (packages for SAP HANA). An experimental package with the Linux kernel, kernel-uki, providing a unified UKI (Unified Kernel Image) signed with a separate key for SecureBoot, is also available.
For the creation of Rocky Linux 9.7, the OpenELA repository, which is supported jointly by Oracle and SUSE, has been used as the source of the source packages. The changes in the development processes are due to the cessation of hosting by Red Hat of the source texts of the rpm packages for RHEL in the public repository git.centos.org. Source packages are provided to clients through a closed section of the company website, which has a user agreement (EULA) prohibiting data redistribution, 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 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.
Source: opennet.ru
