Showing posts with label AlmaLinux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AlmaLinux. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Red Hat extending its Developer program and RHEL subscriptions

In a quick move, Red Hat announces extensions to its Developer program and RHEL subscriptions including more incenses and production availability

It didn't take long. After communicating the end of the CentOS Linux project and announcing their plans to focus on CentOS Stream going forward, a big part of the community was left without alternative on Linux enterprise software. Soon two emerging clones appeared: Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux.

Turns out that now, Red Hat has announced important changes to its developer subscription. Let's take a look at what that means for those looking for an alternative for their now soon-to-be phased-out CentOS Linux servers.

What changed

To understand why this is important, it's important some context. This is how RHEL and CentOS used to be built:

Fedora -> CentOS Stream -> RHEL -> CentOS

Since the communicating the end of CentOS, this is the new workflow:

Fedora -> CentOS Stream -> RHEL

Two new the new programs added to RHEL

To cover that gap, two new programs were announced: no-cost RHEL for small production workloads and no-cost RHEL for customer development teams.

No-cost RHEL for small production workloads

With the updated program Red Hat now allows the Individual Developer subscription for RHEL to be used in production for up to 16 systems. For comparison, before the program limited its use to single-machine developers and no production availability. That's a big gain for developers and small organizations who now will use RHEL more comfortably as a development platform and potently deploy them to production (no support included) for up to 16 systems.

The program was also expanded so you can You can also use the expanded Red Hat Developer program to run RHEL on major public clouds including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. You have to pay only the usual hosting fees charged by your provider of choice; the operating system is free for both development and small production workloads.

For more information about the program, check this page.

No-cost RHEL for customer development teams

In addition to the updates mentioned above, a new program called no-cost RHEL for customer development teams was created. Via this program, it will now be easier for customer development teams to join the Red Hat Developer program and take advantage of its benefits. Development teams can now be added to this program at no additional cost via the customer’s existing subscription, helping to make RHEL more accessible as a development platform for the entire organization.

For more information about the program, check this page.

Availability

This updated Individual Developer subscription for RHEL will be available by February 1st, 2021.

Other programs coming

The announcement however still mentions the company is working on a variety of additional programs for other use cases, which should be communicated by mid-February. It's expected that it should cover large CentOS shops deploying more than 16 production servers.

Commitment to CentOS Stream

To finish, Red Hat re-stated their commitment on Fedora and CentOS Stream as innovation and stability pillars for upcoming RHEL releases. They say:

We’re making CentOS Stream the collaboration hub for RHEL, with the landscape looking like this:

  • Fedora Linux is the place for major new operating system innovations, thoughts, and ideas - essentially, this is where the next major version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is born.

  • CentOS Stream is the continuously delivered platform that becomes the next minor version of RHEL.

  • RHEL is the intelligent operating system for production workloads, used in nearly every industry in the world, from cloud-scale deployments in mission-critical data centers and localized server rooms to public clouds and out to far-flung edges of enterprise networks.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely good news for orphaned CentOS Linux sysadmins. However, most of us wonder why didn't they announce this at the same time they communicated the deprecation of CentOS. Anyhow, developers and smaller companies could definitely benefit from this updated model and migrate their workloads directly to RHEL instead of using alternative CentOS clones such as Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux. Assuming they still trust Red Hat.

See Also

Monday, November 2, 2020

What is Enterprise Linux?

You probably heard the term "Enterprise Linux" before. But do you understand what it means?
Photo by Danielle Barnes on Unsplash

On a previous post we discussed what's a Linux distribution. Today we'll discuss what they are, what they offer and how they differentiate from the traditional community-based desktop distros you use at home or work for free.

With the news that Red Hat is shutting down the CentOS project, we definitely cannot recommend CentOS for your server anymore. 😌 However, it still has its value if you're developing for RHEL.

What is Enterprise Linux?

Enterprise Linux is the term commonly used to refer to a Linux distribution available through a paid subscription service customized for use in commercial organizations. It's frequently used in servers but enterprise software for the desktop is also available. It's available in different architectures.

The first company to popularize the term by specifically targeting a Linux distributions to large enterprise vendors was Red Hat with the first to offer enterprise Linux software with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in early 2000's. Quickly following that, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, followed by Oracle Linux with Ubuntu following more recently.

On the community side, traditionally the venerable Debian Linux has been the go-to choice for the server disputing with CentOS the top spot in recent years.

Why use enterprise Linux software?

The reasons to by enterprise Linux software are:

  • Solid, bulletproof software - LTS Linux kernel and LTS open-source software 
  • Long term support - up to 10 years support 
  • Super high SLAs - for example, RHEL claims up to 99.999% uptime
  • Enforced Security - Frequent and quick security updates to mitigate CVEs and security vulnerabilities
  • Extended Support - Dedicated support to help troubleshooting production issues
  • Access to certified software, hardware and cloud
  • Access to multiple partnerships, trainings and certifications
  • Access to custom/proprietary technologies - including predictive IT analytics service that identifies potential issues before they become problems

Most popular enterprise distributions

The last category is the commercial/enterprise Linux distributions. Those are distributions that require a financial commitment from the user or organization that plans to use them. The most popular today are:

With the news that Red Hat is shutting down the CentOS project, I definitely cannot recommend CentOS for your server anymore. 😌 However, it still has its value if you're developing for RHEL.

Architectures supported

Enterprise software needs to be available for most architectures, including supercomputers. For example, RHEL is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version for x86-64. All of Red Hat's official support and training, together with the Red Hat Certification Program, focuses on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform.  

Enterprise-Grade security

Since how critical Linux is for the functioning of the internet today, there are lots of eyes on its security model, especially on Enterprise-grade software. Government agencies like the NSA and others collaborate to build enterprise security tools like SELinux and AppArmor. But Linux's enterprise-grade security goes beyond that. In fact, there are multiple reasons that make if more more secure then other operating systems, including frequent updates, native disk-encryption, encrypted virtual machines, integrity sub-systems that can be used to detect if a file has been altered and encrypted data at rest.

FAQ

How much does it cost?

Since prices are always fluctuating, we'd ask you to consult the vendors linked above for more information.

Is there such a thing as enterprise desktop?

Yes! There are commercially supported Linux software for the desktop as well. The most popular being offered by Red Hat, Canonical and SUSE.

Are enterprise distributions always paid?

The short answer is no. Most vendors offer a development subscription allowing the developers to develop software on the same system they'll run their services. For example, Red Hat offers a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription, available as part of the Red Hat Developer Program. This license is offered as a self-supported, non-production developer subscription offering a more stable development platform for building enterprise-grade applications and enables a clear pathway to supported, mission-critical deployments across cloud, physical, virtual and container-centric infrastructures.

Free enterprise Linux distributions

Looking for the best of enterprise Linux for as little as possible for your organization? Indeed there are community based enterprise Linux distributions. The common alternatives to paid enterprise software that we recommend are:

Conclusion

On this post we discussed what the term enterprise Linux means and reviewed some frequently asked questions about it. Hope it helps!

With the news that Red Hat is shutting down the CentOS project, we definitely cannot recommend CentOS for your server anymore. 😌 However, it still has its value if you're developing for RHEL.

See Also

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