RHEL has made a new announcement to control the distribution of its source code.

eva2000 · Aug 11, 2023

Looks like it's moving ahead https://www.phoronix.com/news/OpenELA-RHEL-Compatible

OpenELA has been announced as the Open Enterprise Linux Association that brings together CIQ (Rocky Linux), Oracle, and SUSE for collaborating around RHEL-compatible Linux distributions.

As further fallout from Red Hat restricting access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources and that throwing complications into free downstream alternatives of RHEL like Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Oracle Linux, SUSE and Oracle and CIQ decided to form the Open Enterprise Linux Association.

Today's press release explains:

CIQ, Oracle and SUSE today announced their intent to form the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA), a collaborative trade association to encourage the development of distributions compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by providing open and free Enterprise Linux (EL) source code.

The formation of OpenELA arises from Red Hat’s recent changes to RHEL source code availability. In response, CIQ, Oracle and SUSE are collaborating to deliver source code, tools and systems through OpenELA for the community.
...
Starting later this year, OpenELA will provide sources necessary for downstreams compatible with RHEL to exist, with initial focus on RHEL versions EL8, EL9 and possibly EL7. The project is committed to ensuring the continued availability of OpenELA sources to the community indefinitely.
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So this leaves open the opportunity for AlmaLinux to join OpenELA at a later date if their way doesn't pan out

buik · Aug 12, 2023

eva2000 said: ↑

Looks like it's moving ahead https://www.phoronix.com/news/OpenELA-RHEL-Compatible

So this leaves open the opportunity for AlmaLinux to join OpenELA at a later date if their way doesn't pan out
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Great news.
But I don't believe AlmaLinux joins. They have clearly taken a different path.
And surely they will have already been asked to participate.
By the way, I would love it if Alma joins and still remains/becomes an upstream clone.

I am not waiting for a Stream+.
Looking at their Alma git server.
Lots of non upstream code is already been added. Something I don't think is a good idea.

eva2000 · Aug 26, 2023

AlmaLinux OS - Forever-Free Enterprise-Grade Operating System

Thu Aug 24, 2023

Hello, Community! Since AlmaLinux OS has shifted its direction to ABI compatibility, we can now provide additional content for our community. For that reason, two additional repositories have been added - Testing and Synergy. Today, we are announcing that both repositories are available for AlmaLinux OS 8 and AlmaLinux OS 9.

Testing Repository
As we mentioned last week, the Testing repository contains security updates that AlmaLinux OS is now able to release without waiting for the patches to be released upstream. As these packages require additional testing before being released, we invite the community to help test them and provide feedback.

Note: The Testing repository is recommended only for non-production machines.
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And

The Synergy repository is designed for any possible package that is not present in RHEL or EPEL yet, but has been requested by a member of the AlmaLinux community, for the community. While we do encourage and welcome contributions, as soon as the package appears to be in EPEL it will be removed from the Synergy repository.

Moreover, this repository can be enabled for other distros in the Enterprise Linux Ecosystem like RHEL, CentOS, etc.
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buik · Aug 26, 2023

eva2000 said: ↑

AlmaLinux OS - Forever-Free Enterprise-Grade Operating System
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There is absolutely no reason to go down this road, regardless of a conscious choice.
This is another confirmation that AlmaLinux has become a stable CentOS Stream+.
OpenELA, ensured upstream RHEL source-code. This bears little resemblance to an Enterprise-Grade Operating System. Stream is not a RHEL replacement. And: "a rolling preview of what's next in RHEL".

eva2000 · Aug 27, 2023

buik said: ↑

There is absolutely no reason to go down this road, regardless of a conscious choice.
This is another confirmation that AlmaLinux has become a stable CentOS Stream+.
OpenELA, ensured upstream RHEL source-code. This bears little resemblance to an Enterprise-Grade Operating System. Stream is not a RHEL replacement. And: "a rolling preview of what's next in RHEL".
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Yeah, I guess it comes down to personal choice. The definition of Enterprise-Grade is changing. I am interested to see how AlmaLinux do this

buik · Sep 4, 2023

eva2000 said: ↑

Yeah, I guess it comes down to personal choice. The definition of Enterprise-Grade is changing. I am interested to see how AlmaLinux do this
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Exactly and that is exactly the problem. "Enterprise-Grade", is not a protected term with mandatory product specifications and features. You know how I feel about enterprise grade OS'.

However-and this might be an interesting one.
I do notice that AlmaLinux has changed "enterprise-grade" to "production-grade".

eva2000 · Nov 1, 2023

FYI, public AlmaLinux 8 and Rocky Linux 8 beta testing is now open to all https://community.centminmod.com/th...almalinux-8-rocky-linux-8-beta-testing.24227/

eva2000 · Nov 5, 2023

Overlooked this article until now https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-a...rprise-linux-compatible-without-red-hat-code/ Interesting about https://wiki.almalinux.org/repos/Synergy.html

AlmaLinux is creating a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) without any RHEL code. How is that going, you ask? benny Vasquez, chairperson of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, came to the open-source community convention All Things Open here to explain just that.

This has become an issue because Red Hat recently changed the rules on how people could use RHEL code in their own Linux distributions. The change left RHEL clone distributions -- like AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and Oracle Linux -- in the lurch. Under Red Hat's new requirements, developers could no longer easily create RHEL-compatible operating systems.

The result? Oracle trash-talked Red Hat and vowed to maintain RHEL compatibility. The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation will use other methods to get RHEL code. SUSE, which had not been a RHEL clone player, said it would fork RHEL (with some help from Rocky). More recently, all three of the above have united on a plan to create a RHEL-compatible Linux code base, the Open Enterprise Linux source code repository.

And what of AlmaLiniux? It took a different path. Rather than fight with Red Hat over whether the IBM subsidiary could restrict the use of its RHEL code, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation board, Vasquez wrote, "decided to drop the aim to be 1:1 with RHEL. AlmaLinux OS will instead aim to be Application Binary Interface (ABI) compatible."
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What does that mean? AlmaLinux is still in the RHEL clone business: "We will continue to aim to produce an enterprise-grade, long-term distribution of Linux that is aligned and ABI compatible with RHEL in response to our community's needs, to the extent it is possible to do, such that software that runs on RHEL will run the same on AlmaLinux."

That's easy enough to say, but how do you do it? AlmaLinux explained it will use the CentOS Stream source code that Red Hat continues to offer to all and sundry. This is also the codebase Red Hat uses to create RHEL.

How exactly will that work? That's what Vasquez came to All Things Open to explain. AlmaLinux, just like RHEL, is now largely based on CentOS Stream. Additional code is pulled from Red Hat Universal Base Images, and upstream Linux code.

Vasquez added: "Of all the packages, 99% still exactly look at RHEL." Of that minute fraction that doesn't, "about 24% of those packages require manual patching."
Click to expand...

The hardest part is Red Hat's Linux kernel updates because, added Vasquez, "you can't get those kernel updates without violating Red Hat's licensing agreements." Therefore, she continued, "What we do is we pull the security patches from various other sources, and, if nothing else, we can find them when Oracle releases them."

Vasquez did note one blessing from this change in production: "AlmaLinux, no longer bound to Red Hat's releases, has been able to release upstream security fixes faster than Red Hat. "For example, the AMD microcode exploits were patched before Red Hat because they took a little bit of extra time to get out the door. We then pulled in, tested, and out the door about a week ahead of them."

The overall goal remains to maintain RHEL compatibility. "Any breaking changes between RHEL and AlmaLinux, any application that stops working, is a bug and must be fixed."

That's not to say AlmaLinux will be simply an excellent RHEL clone going forward. It plans to add features of its own. For instance, Red Hat users who want programs not bundled in RHEL often turn to Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL). These typically are programs included in Fedora Linux. Besides supporting EPEL software, AlmaLinux has its own extra software package -- called Synergy -- which holds programs that the AlmaLinux community wants but are not available in either EPEL or RHEL. If one such program is subsequently added to EPEL or RHEL, AlmaLinux drops it from Synergy to prevent confusion and duplication of effort.

This has not been an easy road for AlmaLinux. Even a 1% code difference is a lot to write and maintain. For example, when AlmaLinux tried to patch CentOS Stream code to fix a problem, Red Hat was downright grumpy about AlmaLinux's attempt to fix a security hole. Vasquez acknowledged it was tough sledding at first, but noted: "The good news is that they have been improving the process, and things will look a little bit smoother."
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eva2000 · Nov 5, 2023

Overlooked this article until now https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-a...rprise-linux-compatible-without-red-hat-code/ Interesting about https://wiki.almalinux.org/repos/Synergy.html

AlmaLinux is creating a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) without any RHEL code. How is that going, you ask? benny Vasquez, chairperson of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, came to the open-source community convention All Things Open here to explain just that.

This has become an issue because Red Hat recently changed the rules on how people could use RHEL code in their own Linux distributions. The change left RHEL clone distributions -- like AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and Oracle Linux -- in the lurch. Under Red Hat's new requirements, developers could no longer easily create RHEL-compatible operating systems.

The result? Oracle trash-talked Red Hat and vowed to maintain RHEL compatibility. The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation will use other methods to get RHEL code. SUSE, which had not been a RHEL clone player, said it would fork RHEL (with some help from Rocky). More recently, all three of the above have united on a plan to create a RHEL-compatible Linux code base, the Open Enterprise Linux source code repository.

And what of AlmaLiniux? It took a different path. Rather than fight with Red Hat over whether the IBM subsidiary could restrict the use of its RHEL code, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation board, Vasquez wrote, "decided to drop the aim to be 1:1 with RHEL. AlmaLinux OS will instead aim to be Application Binary Interface (ABI) compatible."
Click to expand...

What does that mean? AlmaLinux is still in the RHEL clone business: "We will continue to aim to produce an enterprise-grade, long-term distribution of Linux that is aligned and ABI compatible with RHEL in response to our community's needs, to the extent it is possible to do, such that software that runs on RHEL will run the same on AlmaLinux."

That's easy enough to say, but how do you do it? AlmaLinux explained it will use the CentOS Stream source code that Red Hat continues to offer to all and sundry. This is also the codebase Red Hat uses to create RHEL.

How exactly will that work? That's what Vasquez came to All Things Open to explain. AlmaLinux, just like RHEL, is now largely based on CentOS Stream. Additional code is pulled from Red Hat Universal Base Images, and upstream Linux code.

Vasquez added: "Of all the packages, 99% still exactly look at RHEL." Of that minute fraction that doesn't, "about 24% of those packages require manual patching."
Click to expand...

The hardest part is Red Hat's Linux kernel updates because, added Vasquez, "you can't get those kernel updates without violating Red Hat's licensing agreements." Therefore, she continued, "What we do is we pull the security patches from various other sources, and, if nothing else, we can find them when Oracle releases them."

Vasquez did note one blessing from this change in production: "AlmaLinux, no longer bound to Red Hat's releases, has been able to release upstream security fixes faster than Red Hat. "For example, the AMD microcode exploits were patched before Red Hat because they took a little bit of extra time to get out the door. We then pulled in, tested, and out the door about a week ahead of them."

The overall goal remains to maintain RHEL compatibility. "Any breaking changes between RHEL and AlmaLinux, any application that stops working, is a bug and must be fixed."

That's not to say AlmaLinux will be simply an excellent RHEL clone going forward. It plans to add features of its own. For instance, Red Hat users who want programs not bundled in RHEL often turn to Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL). These typically are programs included in Fedora Linux. Besides supporting EPEL software, AlmaLinux has its own extra software package -- called Synergy -- which holds programs that the AlmaLinux community wants but are not available in either EPEL or RHEL. If one such program is subsequently added to EPEL or RHEL, AlmaLinux drops it from Synergy to prevent confusion and duplication of effort.

This has not been an easy road for AlmaLinux. Even a 1% code difference is a lot to write and maintain. For example, when AlmaLinux tried to patch CentOS Stream code to fix a problem, Red Hat was downright grumpy about AlmaLinux's attempt to fix a security hole. Vasquez acknowledged it was tough sledding at first, but noted: "The good news is that they have been improving the process, and things will look a little bit smoother."
Click to expand...

MaximilianKohler · Nov 5, 2023

Will upgrading from CentOS 7 to one of the new OSs be as simple as creating a snapshot of our server and creating a new server with the new OS with that snapshot?

eva2000 · Nov 5, 2023

And https://www.zdnet.com/article/ciq-o...-openela-to-take-on-red-hat-enterprise-linux/

The day has come. As promised, three major business Linux companies have released the code for OpenELA, their challenge to RHEL.

When Mike McGrath, Red Hat's Red Hat Core Platforms vice president, announced that Red Hat was putting new restrictions on who could access Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)'s code, other Linux companies that depended on RHEL's code for their own distro releases were, in a word, unhappy.

Three of them, CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE, came together to form the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA). Their united goal was to foster "the development of distributions compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by providing open and free enterprise Linux source code." Now, the first OpenELA code release is available.

As Thomas Di Giacomo, SUSE's chief technology and product officer, said in a statement, "We're pleased to deliver on our promise of making source code available and to continue our work together to provide choice to our customers while we ensure that Enterprise Linux source code remains freely accessible to the public."

Why are they doing this? Gregory Kurtzer, CIQ's CEO, and Rocky Linux's founder, explained:

Organizations worldwide standardized on CentOS because it was freely available, followed the Enterprise Linux standard, and was well supported. After CentOS was discontinued, it left not only a gaping hole in the ecosystem but also clearly showed how the community needs to come together and do better. OpenELA is exactly that—the community's answer to ensuring a collaborative and stable future for all professional IT departments and enterprise use cases.
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This code base contains all the necessary packages for building a derivative Enterprise Linux operating system. While the initial focus is on EL8 and EL9, clones of RHEL 8 and 9, respectively, packages for EL7 are in the pipeline. OpenELA is committed to making EL sources available forever for the broader community.

The codebase, however, is still a work in progress. There are a handful of sources, such as the non-toolset gcc code, that are still set to private. That's largely because the code's still being cleared of Red Hat trademarks.

There's also, for the moment, no look-aside grabber for the codebase. This tool makes it easier to download the source tarballs from multiple code repos. In addition, downloading the code is going to be slow. While the code base is currently hosted on a cloud, that repo is not backed by a content delivery network (CDN). That, too, will be corrected, and download speeds will improve.

The mission of OpenELA, which is now a nonprofit corporation, is to establish and make accessible the sources, tooling, and assets to all members, collaborators, and the open source Enterprise Linux distribution developers to create and maintain bug-to-bug compatible downstream derivatives of RHEL.

OpenELA's job is not to create a single enterprise Linux distribution for all three companies. They'll use OpenELA as the base for their distributions -- Oracle Linux; and SUSE's Liberty Linux. The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) is also considering using OpenELA as the foundation for Rocky Linux.
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OpenELA is open to individuals, groups, and companies that want to deliver reliable and secure access to Enterprise Linux packages and build systems. Mind you, this isn't the only way to build a RHEL clone. AlmaLinux does it pulling from the CentOS Stream codebase.

And what does Red Hat make of all this? The company did not reply to a request to comment on this latest move by its rivals
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eva2000 · Nov 5, 2023

MaximilianKohler said: ↑

Will upgrading from CentOS 7 to one of the new OSs be as simple as creating a snapshot of our server and creating a new server with the new OS with that snapshot?
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Unfortunately, that won't work. You'd need to manually migrate data like you would moving servers from CentOS 7 to EL8 OS like AlmaLinux 8 or Rocky Linux 8 as outlined at https://community.centminmod.com/posts/97657/. My goal is the new centmin.sh menu option 21 mentioned in that link when ready for public testing will help with such migrations.

buik · Nov 5, 2023

eva2000 said: ↑

AlmaLinux explained it will use the CentOS Stream source code that Red Hat continues to offer to all and sundry. This is also the codebase Red Hat uses to create RHEL.
Click to expand...

Same marketing bla bla as when the CentOS / Red Hat team, tried to extol Stream last year. After all, it was almost the same thing according to CentOS. Then if it's supposedly almost the same; Why not using RHEL as source. There is absolutely no reason to deploy Stream code in production. I've posted it before, the article below shows very clearly that the Stream product is not anything like it at all, as what the team wants it to believe to its (potential) users.

AlmaLinux Stream: Why and how? - Androides

eva2000 said: ↑

The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) is also considering using OpenELA as the foundation for Rocky Linux.
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That does surprise me somewhat. I thought this was already applicable. Or was in progress.
CIQ is one of the driving forces behind OpenELA, RESF and Rocky. And looking at their OpenELA Git repo. There are several RESF/Rocky employees, active with commits etc.

eva2000 · Nov 6, 2023

buik said: ↑

Why not using RHEL as source. There is absolutely no reason to deploy Stream code in production. I've posted it before, the article below shows very clearly that the Stream product is not anything like it at all, as what the team wants it to believe to its (potential) users.
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Yeah, maybe AlmaLinux will join OpenELA too

buik said: ↑

That does surprise me somewhat. I thought this was already applicable. Or was in progress.
CIQ is one of the driving forces behind OpenELA, RESF and Rocky. And looking at their OpenELA Git repo. There are several RESF/Rocky employees, active with commits etc.
Click to expand...

Probably the reality of trying to maintain 1:1 for Rocky is a lot harder so worth getting help

buik · Nov 6, 2023

eva2000 said: ↑

Yeah, maybe AlmaLinux will join OpenELA too
Probably the reality of trying to maintain 1:1 for Rocky is a lot harder so worth getting help
Click to expand...

That seems unlikely to me. Alma made a conscious choice. It is almost inevitable that they were also asked to participate in the OpenELA project.

buik · Jan 3, 2024

Wondering if there's already trouble in OpenELA paradise? Last update from OpenELA is from 24 of november 2023. At the time, very quick releases after upstream release schedule. Latest upstream update is from januari 2024.

eva2000 · Jun 27, 2024

Old video but outlines AlmaLinux's decisions after Redhat closed off the source RPMs outlined in this thread

eva2000 · Jul 27, 2024

One of the benefits of AlmaLinux no longer being tied strictly to Redhat upstream AlmaLinux Picking Up glibc Patch Ahead Of RHEL To Rescue VFX Houdini Users - Phoronix

While Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very popular with the VFX crowd, those relying on the SideFX Houdini 3D animation software are running into a bit of a pickle if trying to use RHEL 9.4. There's a glibc bug causing random crashes for Houdini that Red Hat has been slow to pickup but is now going to be shipped by AlmaLinux early to satisfy VFX users.

There's been a known upstream bug going back to May that the glibc update in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 is making SideFX Houdini practically unusable. There are crashes when performing random operations with the software. But RHEL 9.3 and older work just fine.
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The fix has been available the past month and upstreamed in Glibc. It has also worked its way to CentOS Stream 9 but not yet released as a RHEL 9.4 package update. Thus those using Houdini on RHEL need to stick to RHEL 9.3 or older, but that means missing out on recent security updates.

To protect those needing to use Houdini in production, AlmaLinux is steaming ahead and working to ship the glibc fix from CentOS Stream 9 even without it being picked up yet by RHEL. They are currently testing the update and for those interested there is more information on the AlmaLinux blog.
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