Rocky Linux
| Company type | Privately held benefit corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Linux distribution |
| Founded | 2020 |
| Founder | Gregory Kurtzer |
| Headquarters | United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Gregory Kurtzer (CEO), Jordan Pisaniello (Community Manager) |
| Products | Rocky Linux (Linux distribution) |
| Website | https://rockylinux.org |
Rocky Linux is a Linux distribution created by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, a privately held benefit corporation that functions as a "self-imposed not-for-profit" organization. It serves as a downstream release fully binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), utilizing its source code. The initiative focuses on providing a community-backed, production-ready enterprise operating system. Rocky Linux has become increasingly favored for enterprise environments alongside RHEL and SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE).
The project's first release candidate was made available on April 30, 2021, followed by the initial stable release on June 21, 2021. Support for Rocky Linux 8 extends until May 2029, Rocky Linux 9 will be maintained through May 2032, and Rocky Linux 10 is planned to receive updates until May 2035.
History
On December 8, 2020, Red Hat declared it would cease development of CentOS, a downstream RHEL variant, shifting focus instead to the upstream CentOS Stream.[1] In reaction to this change, Gregory Kurtzer—CEO of CIQ, a Rocky Linux support firm and one of CentOS’s original co-founders—initiated Rocky Linux to continue CentOS’s foundational purpose.[2] Named in honor of early CentOS co-founder Rocky McGaugh,[3] the Rocky Linux code repository rapidly became GitHub’s most trending project by December 12.[4]
Community manager Jordan Pisaniello announced plans on December 22, 2020, aiming for an initial release between March and May of 2021.[5] By January 20, 2021, a public testing repository was scheduled for February with an anticipated release candidate in March.[6] The first release candidate was issued on April 30, 2021,[7] followed by a second candidate on June 4, 2021.[8] Rocky Linux aligns with RHEL’s versioning scheme and maintains binary compatibility, supported by numerous financially robust sponsors.[9] The stable version Rocky Linux 8.4, codenamed "Green Obsidian," was officially released on June 21, 2021.[10]
Rocky Linux 9.0 debuted on July 14, 2022, featuring the "Peridot" reproducible build system aimed at speeding up releases and enabling community-led forks if necessary.[11] This edition also introduced compatibility with little-endian PowerPC processors and IBM Z (s390x) mainframe architectures.[12]
On June 11, 2025, Rocky Linux 10.0 "Red Quartz" was launched.[13]
Releases
Certain Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation ISO images are unique creations without direct upstream counterparts, intended specifically for live boot environments or minimized installation packages.
| Rocky Linux version | Code Name | Architectures | RHEL base | Kernel | Rocky Linux release date | RHEL release date | Delay (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope="row" Template:Version | Green Obsidian | x86-64, ARM64 | 8.3 | 4.18.0-240 | 2021-05-01 | 2020-11-03 | 179 |
| scope="row" Template:Version | 8.4 | 4.18.0-305 | 2021-06-21 | 2021-05-18 | 34 | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | 8.5 | 4.18.0-348 | 2021-11-15 | 2021-11-09 | 6 | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | 8.6 | 4.18.0-372.9.1 | 2022-05-16 | 2022-05-10 | 6 | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | 8.7 | 4.18.0-425.3.1 | 2022-11-14 | 2022-11-09 | 5 | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | 8.8 | 4.18.0-477.10.1 | 2023-05-20 | 2023-05-16 | 4 | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | 8.9 | 4.18.0-513.5.1 | 2023-11-22 | 2023-11-14 | 8 | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | 8.10 | 4.18.0-553 | 2024-05-30 | 2024-05-22 | 8 | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | Blue Onyx | x86-64-v2, ARM64, ppc64le, s390x | 9.0 | 5.14.0-70.13.1 | 2022-07-14 | 2022-05-17 | 58 |
| scope="row" Template:Version | 9.1 | "5 .14 .0 -162 .6 .1" | "2022 -11 -26" | "2022 -11 -15" | "11" | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | "9 .2" | "5 .14 .0 -284 .11 .1" | "2023 -05 -16" | "2023 -05 -10" | "6" | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | "9 .3" | "5 .14 .0 -362 .8 .1" | "2023 -11 -20" | "2023 -11 -07" | "13" | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | "9 .4" | "5 .14 .0 -427 .13 .1" | "2024 -05 -09" | "2024 -04 -30" | "9" | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | "9 .5" | "5 .14 .0 -503 .14 .1" | "2024 -11 -19" | "2024 -11 -12" | "7" | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | "9 .6" | "5 .14 .0 -570 .17 .1" | "2025 -06 -04" | "2025 -05 -20" | "15" | ||
| scope="row" Template:Version | "Red Quartz" | "x86 -64-v3, ARM64, ppc64le, s390x, riscv64" | "10 .0" | "6 .12 .0 -55 .12 .1" | "2025 -06 -11" | "2025 -05 -20" | "22" |