The release of Rocky Linux 9.8 has been announced, aimed at creating a free build of RHEL, capable of taking the place of classic CentOS. The distribution is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as a replacement for RHEL 9.8 and CentOS 9 Stream. Support for Rocky Linux 9 will be provided until May 31, 2032. Installation ISO images of Rocky Linux are prepared for x86_64, aarch64, ppc64le, and s390x (IBM Z) architectures. Additionally, live images with GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, and Xfce desktop environments are published for the x86_64 architecture.
As in classic CentOS, the changes made in the Rocky Linux packages focus on eliminating the branding tied to Red Hat and removing RHEL-specific packages such as redhat-*, insights-client, and subscription-manager-migration*. A "security" repository has been implemented for emergency updates of packages addressing critical vulnerabilities for which updates with fixes have not yet been formed in RHEL. Aside from that, changes in Rocky Linux 9.8 correspond to those in RHEL 9.8.
Among the features specific to Rocky Linux, note that packages openldap 2.6.8, 7zip 25.01, iftop 1.0, and nmon 16q are supplied in a separate plus repository, and in the NFV repository, there are packages for virtualizing network components, developed by the NFV SIG group (Network Functions Virtualization).
Rocky Linux also supports the CRB repositories (Code Ready Builder with additional packages for developers, replacing 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 — is provided, offering a unified UKI (Unified Kernel Image) certified with a separate key for Secure Boot.
As a source of source packages for building Rocky Linux 9.8, the OpenELA repository is utilized, which is jointly supported by Oracle and SUSE. The change in development processes was prompted by Red Hat's cessation of hosting source text for RHEL rpm packages in the public repository git.centos.org. Source packages are provided to customers through a closed section of the site, where a user agreement (EULA) prohibits redistribution, preventing these packages from being used 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.
Source: opennet.ru
