Rocky Linux 9 brings security improvements and better performance for business users

Rocky Linux 9 has become generally available today and offers users of the open-source operating system a range of security and performance updates.

Rocky Linux is based on the CentOS Linux operating system developed by Red Hat and is widely used in the cloud and on-premises to run business applications. Since 2020, Red Hat has no longer produced a full, freely available version of CentOS intended as an enterprise Linux distribution. Red Hat’s decision spawned a number of organizations, including the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) and Alma Linuxto create their own versions of CentOS.

One of the main supporters of the RESF is: CIQ, who announced on May 11 that it had raised $26 million to grow its Rocky Linux efforts.

CentOS has long been seen as a free clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Rocky Linux aims to be a compatible offering. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9″ was released on May 10, and the new Rocky Linux 9 shares many of its capabilities, including updated cryptographic libraries and security improvements.

“When we created Rocky Linux, it was really about filling that gap of CentOS,” Gregory Kurtzer, founder and CEO of CIQ told VentureBeat. “So from the user’s point of view, this bit for bit will be binary compatible as far as we can get away with.”

Perhaps more interesting than what’s in Rocky Linux 9 is how the operating system was built and what it will enable for enterprises now. Rocky Linux 9 is compiled with a new build system called peridot that will allow organizations in the future to build highly customized versions of Rocky Linux for specific use cases.

What Rocky Linux Means for Enterprises

Before 2020, CentOS was developed in a downstream approach to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In the downstream model, CentOS was built using code repositories used for Red Hat.

Since 2020, there has been an effort called CentOS Stream, the upstream code from which Red Hat builds its Linux distribution. Rocky Linux now also builds from CentOS Stream, though it’s built using a different approach than Red Hat.

Until the 9.0 release, Rocky Linux was built using the open source Which construction tool?, which was originally developed by Red Hat’s Linux community project called Fedora. Kurtzer explained that while Koji is functional, it is designed for physical hardware and not cloud native systems. The Rocky Linux team realized early on that a new build system was needed and that’s what Peridot is all about.

The basic idea is to have a fully reproducible build structure so that any user can reproduce the same steps that Rocky Linux developers took to build the operating system. The cloud-native approach means that the build system can run in the Kubernetes container orchestration system.

For business users, Peridot can also help them build Rocky Linux with packages that fit a particular workload or requirement.

Until now, Rocky Linux relied on using the same Linux kernel that Red Hat uses, but that could become an option for users in the future as well. Oracle Linux, which is also based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, offers its users a choice of the standard Red Hat Linux kernel or its own Unbreakable Linux kernel. Kurtzer wants to offer Rocky Linux users a similar choice in the future, which Peridot will also help enable. Rocky Linux’s kernel effort also benefits from the support of Greg Kroah-Hartman, who maintains stable development of the Linux kernel, after a new kernel is released by the Linux maker. Linus Torvalds†

Growing Support for Rocky Linux

Enterprise users tend to want applications certified for use on a particular operating system.

While many enterprise applications are certified to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re certified to run on Rocky Linux, even though the two distributions are largely compatible.

“We want to support enterprise organizations and business use cases, and in many cases they require a level of certification,” Kurtzer said. “What we found is that customers are now pushing vendors to actually bring in support for Rocky Linux.”

Among the organizations now certifying their applications on Rocky Linux is Nvidia, with its CUDA Development Toolkit for parallel computing. Rocky Linux is now supported in Google Cloud also. Kurtzer hinted that there will be a host of announcements about additional certifications in the coming months.

The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation benefits from the support of both Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and VMware.

“If you look at the sponsorship and partnership pages for the RESF, you will see a number of organizations, many of them very large, who are now standing behind Rocky to ensure that Rocky Linux will be successful,” Kurtzer said.