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. <\/p>\n
As with classic CentOS, the changes made to the packages in Rocky Linux focus on eliminating the ties to the Red Hat brand and removing RHEL-specific packages such as redhat-*, insights-client, and subscription-manager-migration*. You can familiarize yourself with the list of changes in Rocky Linux 9.5 in the RHEL 9.5 announcement. Among the specific changes for Rocky Linux, it is worth noting the delivery of the openldap-servers-2.6.6 package in a separate repository, plus packages for network component virtualization developed by the NFV SIG group in the NFV repository. Rocky Linux also supports the CRB (Code Ready Builder with additional packages for developers, which replaced PowerTools), RT (packages for real-time operation), HighAvailability, ResilientStorage, SAP, and SAP HANA (packages for SAP HANA). An experimental package with the Linux kernel \u2014 kernel-uki has been added, providing a unified UKI (Unified Kernel Image), certified with a separate key for Secure Boot. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n