CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE Form Alliance to Thwart Near-Closing of the RHEL Source
With Red Hat/IBM making it harder for developers and teams to access the source for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), some organizations are joining forces to pave a new path forward.
CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE have come together to create the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA). Because those organizations have business models that depend upon maintaining compatibility with RHEL, they created OpenELA to share resources and work communally on a solution that will provide downstream compatibility.
This new organization describes itself as a "community repository for enterprise Linux sources." What's at the heart of the Open Enterprise Linux Association is that the source will be available with no subscriptions, passwords, or barriers. In fact, the group goes so far as to say, "Freeloaders welcome."
The stated mission for OpenELA is to support continued access to source code that provides RHEL binary compatibility. To do this, OpenELA will offer open and free enterprise-grade Linux source code required to build systems compatible with RHEL 8 and RHEL 9.
And OpenELA does not mince words when they say, "From Enterprise Linux downstream derivatives, to organizations that depend on Enterprise Linux, to vendors and individuals who just love being part of something amazing, YOU ARE INVITED!"
It's clear that this effort is for everyone who depends on RHEL but either needs help to afford the licensing for Red Hat's distribution or has soured on RHEL because they placed the source behind a paywall.
Currently, OpenELA is just getting off the ground. For more information, you can email them or join the OpenELA Team on Slack.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.