This piece from TechHQ looks at alternatives to CentOS, the former Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone that was purchased, then scheduled to transition into a rolling-release distribution. Since businesses rely on the stability of a more regular (and often conservative) release schedule, the change in CentOS signaled the end of an alternative server OS that was both free and compatible with RHEL. Coupled with a change by Red Hat making RHEL source code available only in customer portals rather than a publicly-available GitHub repository, a number of companies including SuSE, Oracle, and CIQ formed the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA) to create a new enterprise Linux platform.

Red Hat announced an overhaul of its channel program, according a piece by Channel Daily. Key among the new initiatives is the Red Hat Partner Practice Accelerator Program, which will provide incentives for mid-market customers. Added to new programs including training and a new demo platform, the updates can help increase the uptake of open source in the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) segment.

The spring 2023 release of Ubuntu, version 23.04 or the “Lunar Lobster,” has reached the end of its support period. As a non-Long Term Support (LTS) release, it’s supported for a shorter timeframe. Linux Insider published a useful how-to as machines running 23.04, especially servers, should be upgraded as soon as possible. Generally a non-LTS release will be upgraded to a subsequent non-LTS release, as the closest LTS version will always be a downgrade (in this case, 22.04), which may affect package support.