For some small percentage of the Hackaday crowd, our world got turned upside down at the end of last year, when Red Hat announced changes to CentOS. That distro is the official repackage of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, providing a free, de-branded version of RHEL. The big problem was that CentOS 8 support has been cut way short, ending at the end of 2021 instead of the expected 2029. This caused no shortage of consternation in the community, and a few people and companies stepped forward to provide their own CentOS alternative, with AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux being the two most promising. AlmaLinux minted their first release in March, but the Rocky project made the decision to take things a bit slower. The wait is over, and the Rocky Linux 8.4 release is ready.
Not only are there ISOs for new installs, there is also a script to convert a CentOS 8 install to Rocky. Now before you run out and convert all your CentOS machines, there are a few caveats. First, the upgrade script is still being tested and fixed as problems are found. The big outstanding issue is that Secure Boot isn’t working yet. The process of spinning up a new Secure Boot shim and getting it properly signed is non-trivial, and takes time. The plan is to do an 8.4 re-release when the shim is ready, so keep an eye out for that, if you need Secure Boot support.
The future looks bright for enterprise Linux, with options such as Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and even CentOS Stream. It’s worth noting that Rocky has a newly formed company behind it, CIQ, offering support if you want it. The Rocky crew is planning a launch party online on June 25th, so tune in if that’s your thing. Regardless of which Linux OS you run, it’s good to have Rocky in the game.
*Quietly hums the “Rocky” theme music.* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhlPAj38rHc
Funny, I was humming.. Michael Rennie was ill the day the earth stood still.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBRzk-YFAis
Doris Daytheearthstoodstill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tCO9qcFJsE
I was working as SysAdmin in a small bussiness when the end of life of CentOS was announced.
I as asked to find a replacement and reinstall all 50 or so servers in the company.
Naturally I quit and find a new job. Haha
cool story bro
Even more flavors of linux?
That will help people to choose what’s best for them.
This doesn’t seem to me like something that is aimed at linux “beginners”.
Despite the wealth of distros, some are very mainstream, and beginners will have no trouble choosing something like ubuntu to start with.
If one thing is preventing people to switching to Linux I am pretty confident it isn’t choice paralysis.
This one has a very specific target audience. “I have software only supported on RHEL, but I can’t afford the RHEL license on this test environment”
s/can’t afford/don’t need/
Considering a lot of them are just themed versions of the mainstream choices I can see that.
Occasionally there are differences.
https://youtu.be/R9SfiDH0lTE
Yeah, great, but now especially with the advent of windows 11 coming, why there isn’t just a nice simple distro which looks like Windows XP, runs windows apps well in emulation without faffing around, has a easy to use package manager, like the various windows/android/apple stores, and linux would swiftly become a dominant desktop OS.
@save me from windows said: “Yeah, great, but now especially with the advent of windows 11 coming, why there isn’t just a nice simple distro which looks like Windows XP, runs windows apps well in emulation without faffing around, has a easy to use package manager, like the various windows/android/apple stores, and linux would swiftly become a dominant desktop OS.”
There is – Linux Mint, in various “flavors”. Cinnamon is my favorite, Xfceis a lighter-weight alternative.
https://www.linuxmint.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint
Prominently displayed on their download page:
> Rocky Linux […] may not be exported […] (c) for use in connection with the design, development or production of […] rocket systems, space launch vehicles, or sounding rockets, or unmanned air vehicle systems.
Sooooo, is that normal for Linux distros?
Would I be in violation of US regulations if I worked on model rockets or software like ArduPilot while I’m abroad? o.O
Model rockets are exempt from those regulations, as are fireworks. Don’t worry, you won’t lose your Rocky Linux licence for setting off bottle rockets.
There is an important message to IBM and the entity formerly known as “RedHat” that I think is:
* IBM (and everyone else) don’t pervert open source for your business objectives. It is open source, work with the wishes
and expectations of the community, we will respect your contributions.
* We can circumvent your unwise actions when needed as we have just done. We don’t want to play this game. Be a
constructive, not negative, force in the community and your non-destructive business objectives
and the open source can both benefit.
* Do not “pull the rug out” from under the community like you did when you acquired the company formerly
known as “RedHat” and ignored their community agreements like when you perverted CentOS 8 support.
* IBM, the paradigm of software and OS development has changed. If it is something you created from
scratch for your purposes then you may do as you please and may you continue with the old-world business
model of crush (or buy out) the competition if you wish to continue that mode of operation.
In the context of open source, please boldly advance beyond the 1960’s mindset and constructively cooperate
with the open source communities . Get beyond thinking that you can “buy out” the open source projects
you see as a competitor.
It’s somewhat strange that Oracle Linux doesn’t get much attention in this context. This free RHEL-clone has been around for more than 15 years.
You would voluntarily install an OS from Oracle in your company?
I usually avoid O. like the plague and I also wouldn’t voluntarily install RHEL oder CentOS, but that’s more a matter of taste. But many commercial products use RHEL as a base so OL is an option if you want an enterprise OS without expensive service contracts. To be fair, if O. has done anything nice in the past two decades, it’s OL.
Another nice thing that Oracle lawyers did in the past two decades, was making Libre Offices possible.
That it was not planned as such, doesn’t matter.
The issue with Rocky for me as I have come to learn from reading commentary is that while they promote that they are in the interest of the community it seems like they are actually not. The co-founder of centos seems to have repeated the same thing that happened to it once before and owns everything related to it so it is controlled at his will. It also seems like they are not quite transparent with that. This doesn’t sit well with me and doesn’t bode well for the effort. For all the enthusiasm shown and all the hype this will likely go down in flames again the same way the previous project did taking the community with it. Good luck.
its also a bit weird the massive level of press coverage its got compared to AlmaLinux that was out a month ago – before Oracle even. Then again their Twitter guy seems to retweet pretty much every mention.
I was initially going to support Rocky as it seemed the less commercial/seedy of the two, but now we have the ex-Centos guy owning the company that does commercial support spreading FUD about the competition and AlmaLinux becoming a charity; the situation seems to have reversed.
“Cut me, Mick.”
“I don’t wanna do it.”
“Sudo cut me mick”
Alma FTW. I have been running it on 20 servers for two months already – not a single issue.