Today we will learn what is Rocky Linux. This is a little guideline for beginners. There is a lot of news these days about the release of a new distribution of Linux on the Internet among developers and fans of the Linux operating system; Centux8 is due to RedHat’s unpleasant announcement about Linux that CentOS will live until the end of 2021 and end its life after 2021. Also, RedHat’s focus on the CentOS stream was bitter news for many users.
Meanwhile, the controversial news about the distribution of Rocky Linux managed to create a change among users and give them hope that they will not make a hasty decision to change the distribution of their operating system. In this article, we would like to introduce you to the controversial Rocky Linux to clear all the confusion in your mind about this operating system.
Rocky Linux history
With CentOS 8 at the end of its life, RedHat has decided that it will no longer support CentOS, popular in the industrial, scientific, and laboratory communities; It is not equivalent to RHEL (introduced as Supported Linux Enterprise) but will be a future version of RHEL. Although RedHat has introduced the CentOS Stream distribution as an alternative to CentOS8. This is not an RHEL binary compatible distribution. This issue caused a debate between Linux distribution developers and open source teams to resolve the issue and raised concerns for users and businesses developing with CentOS-based business and enterprise packages because CentOS stability was at risk. Based on these changes, it can be concluded that CentOS will be removed from the game soon. For this reason, many users want to migrate to CentOS Stream or choose other distributions.
CentOS Stream was released in 2021 and it was created as a testing ground for innovation and creativity to be used as a commercial distribution in the future. However, its numerous updates have raised concerns about the security level. And have failed to fully satisfy CentOs users.
In this situation, CentOS co-founder Gregory Kurtzer announced his intention to release an alternative to CentOS, based on RHEL and supported and developed by a community. And introduced it as Rocky Linux. As a result, Rocky Linux was released a few months later, and Alma Linux was released in 2021. And the first version was released as version 8.4 on June 21, 2021. Rocky Linux is working towards its progress by offering new versions.
Gregory Kurtze is trying to develop a rocky Linux like RHEL. Its aim is to attract current CentOS users. And take a firm step and get off to a good start by supporting this distribution with strong sponsors and experts.
What is Rocky Linux? [ Beginners Guideline ]
Rocky Linux is a free, open-source Linux distribution. And a community enterprise OS based on RHEL. This distribution is an unofficial alternative to CentOS and introduces itself as an RHEL-compliant distribution by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation. It’s responsible for Rocky Linux. This distribution with HPC capabilities is a good choice for server and desktop applications. And for its features such as stability; Responsible for different goals of business and users.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Rocky Linux
When a user buys a Linux VPS, users are confused about selecting the best Linux distribution. To avoid experiencing this ambiguous situation, it is best to examine your needs and goals and then evaluate each distribution based on the characteristics and benefits of the desired distribution.
Although not long after the release of Rocky Linux; It is not easy to evaluate its advantages and disadvantages, in the short time since its release, we can get results from the experience of users using it and the analysis of experts. Whatever, we need much time to achieve a reliable result. Rocky Linux, with its own features, can reach a good position. Let’s take a closer look at Rocky Linux and its pros and cons.
Advantages of Rocky Linux
Compatibility
Rocky Linux compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise binaries makes it more efficient and reassures many users about the functionality of this distribution; Rocky also fixed issues with Linux container images and cloud-based offerings.
Open source
Rocky Linux open source is one of the key features of this distribution, which has led to the formation of a large and united support community for it; Continuously and without any interruption, it can provide various updates to meet the needs of users and provide a complete level of security to give users hope for a bright future of Rocky Linux as a preferred alternative to previous distributions.
Stability
Rocky Linux was created to replace CentOS, so it should provide the main advantage of CentOS, which was its stability, as its important feature, and should work in this field without vulnerabilities and errors to gain the trust of users. Consequently, despite new updates and unstable systems, Rocky Linux focuses on its system stability.
Support
Before the release of Rocky Linux, Gregory Kurtzer knew the needs of CentOs users and the efficient features of CentOS that are important to its users, so he decided to form a large and strong support community so that users can choose this distribution for their operations. No worries.
Disadvantages Of Rocky Linux
The disadvantages of Rocky Linux will make you more familiar with this type of Linux distribution.
Update
Undoubtedly, Rocky Linux pays a lot of attention to its stability, but releasing the latest versions of its programs is time-consuming, so the update cycle is slower than that of CentOS Stream. This can be a boon for users who care about stability, but it’s a downside for developers; They may prefer a distribution with frequent updates.
An unknown future
Rocky Linux is planning and going through the initial phase of its life. Although it has strong supporters from large corporations, there are concerns about its decline in the future; Rocky Linux requires an adequate budget and committed supporters to develop and provide regular updates.
What is the use of rocky Linux? [ Rocky Linux Guideline ]
Rocky Linux is aimed at private businesses and users looking for a viable alternative to CentOS, who want similar features to complement CentOS capabilities; In fact, they look user-friendly; A reliable, stable, and free distribution, which can perform well for the basic needs of large organizations and for performing cloud computing operations. RHEL’s similarity to Rocky Linux as a free and binary compatible replacement attracts the attention of companies and businesses.
As Rocky Linux introduces itself as a replacement for CentOS8. It has similar performance and capabilities in every way and is even trying to extend these capabilities. Rocky Linux has good performance in many areas. Its most important use is as a web server, which is compatible with most control panels and uses Redhat Enterprise Server resources (past and present); Also recommended for medium-sized businesses. It is also used as an email server, router, and VPN setup. And has an excellent performance in these areas.
As a development system. Rocky Linux can meet the needs of developers. In this distribution, the development package is readily available, and third parties can participate without any problems.
This distribution is also recommended for new users due to its free download of different versions and ease of installation of Rocky Linux OS; Also if stability is an essential factor for you and you are not interested in frequent updates, then this distribution may be suitable for you.
Rocky Linux Alternatives Guideline
Rocky Linux may not be your preferred distribution and may not meet your needs, so you can replace it with another distribution.
Ubuntu
It is a free and open source version of Linux supported by a large community. This operating system is very famous among Linux users and is very stable and secure.
Alma Linux
After the announcement of CentOS, other than Rocky Linux, Alma Linux was introduced as a replacement, which is freely available and compatible with Red Hat Enterprise. It continues to compete with Rocky Linux to replace CentOS.
OpenSUSE Leap
Nuremberg SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH has been developing this distribution since 2015, providing users with a free and open source distribution.
Conclusion
Rocky Linux is a new open-source Linux distribution intended to replace CentOS8. This is a social enterprise operating system supported by a growing community. This is known as the RHEL rebuild project and is based on the RHEL source code. That’s why it works alongside the server. Rocky Linux will also be compatible with the RHEL lifecycle; Therefore, it will continue to work till at least 2029 and the future of Rocky Linux is surprisingly bright. If you want to know how to fix the VPS connection problem then you can read this content.
