The open source enterprise distribution landscape is gaining a new version: RockyLinux 9.6 It is now available for those looking for a free and stable alternative to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in its latest version. The distribution, which continues to gain followers in corporate and development environments, comes with various technical improvements and new features aimed at facilitating the implementation and maintenance of the system.
In this edition, Rocky Linux reinforces the process of creating and delivering images using openSUSE's KIWI tool, a modern, open-source image generator. Many of the images in this release have been built with KIWI, along with Empanadas and ImageFactory, allowing for more consistent and maintainable workflows.
Featured Innovations in Rocky Linux 9.6
Among the main technical innovations, the incorporation of updated utilities for images intended for Oracle Cloud and the release of a specific image for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), making it easier to run Rocky Linux on Windows 10 and 11 systems.
Security also receives attention, with Additional rules for SELinux, expanding coverage to services such as iio-sensor-proxy, power-profiles-daemon, switcheroo-control, and samba-bgqd. However, some known issues related to SELinux and ZFS have been detected, so it's recommended to review the release documentation for full details on these issues.
Updated components and expanded support
Under the hood, Rocky Linux 9.6 incorporates the same updated packages as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6. Notable releases include Rust 1.84.1, LLVM 19.17, Go 1.23, Grafana 10.2.6, MySQL 8.4, Valgrind 3.24.0, PHP 8.3 and 8.4, elfutils 0.192, nginx 1.26, Performance Co-pilot 6.3.2, libabigail 2.6, and SystemTap 5.2, among others. All of this ensures a modern experience aligned with current business and development standards.
Download options and compatibility
The new version can be downloaded directly from the Official site by Rocky Linux and is available for various architectures: x86_64 (64-bit), AArch64 (ARM64), PowerPC 64-bit Little Endian (ppc64le) and IBM System z (s390x). For those who want to try the Rocky Linux experience without installing, there are Live ISO images with desktops such as KDE Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, and MATE pre-installed.
The arrival of this version reaffirms Rocky Linux's commitment to offering a solid and updated alternative to traditional enterprise solutions, with particular attention to cross-platform support and ease of deployment in the cloud and virtualized environments. As always, before upgrading or deploying to production, it's a good idea to review the release notes, especially for systems using SELinux or ZFS.
With Rocky Linux 9.6, users now have a robust solution tailored to modern needs, capable of covering everything from bare metal servers to cloud deployments or development desktops, all while maintaining the compatibility and open spirit characteristic of this project.