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Red Hat has recently announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8. The new version arrives just under 5 years later RHEL7 and includes new software such as GNOME 3.28 running on Wayland and the Linux 4.18 kernel. According to Red Hat's release notes, RHEL 8 is largely based on Fedora 28 which came out last year, so expect slightly older, but more stable packages from RHEL 8.
Full support is guaranteed for the operating system until May 2024.
Other changes that users will notice is that the YUM package manager is now based on DNF. This change was made in Fedora some time ago, but now the change has come to RHEL by providing support for modular content and improved performance. Additionally, app streams are now supported, allowing developers to access newer tools without impacting the core resources used in RHEL.
Speaking about the new update, Stefanie Chiras, vice president and general manager of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat, said:
“Innovation and Linux are inseparable - from building the Internet backbone to forming the first neurons of AI, Linux drives the present and future of IT. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 embraces Linux's role as an IT innovation engine, crystallizing it into an accessible, reliable, and more secure platform. Spanning the entirety of the hybrid cloud, the world's leading enterprise Linux platform provides a catalyst for IT organizations to do more than simply meet today's challenges; it gives them the foundation and tools to launch their future wherever they want. "
Architectures supported by RHEL 8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 provides support for the following architectures.
- AMD and Intel 64-bit architectures
- The 64-bit ARM architecture
- IBM Power Systems, Little Endian
- IBM Z
New RHEL 8 features
- The Cockpit is now available by default
- RHEL 8 comes with a new version of the DNF-based YUM version. This new version is compatible with YUM v3 (RHEL 7)
- RPM v4.14 is distributed in RHEL 8. RPM now validates the entire contents of the package before starting the installation
- The content of RHEL 8 is other file systems through the two main repositories: BaseOS and Application Streams(AppStream)
- RHEL 8 supports up to 4 PB of physical memory
- Wayland is the default display server instead of the Xorg server in RHEL 8
- XFS now supports copy-on-write shared data extensions
- nftables replaces iptables as the default network filtering framework
- Python 3.6 is the default version of Python in RHEL 8
- PHP 7.2 comes with RHEL 8
- Nginx 1.14 is available in the main repository in RHEL 8
RedHat a new logo
With the occasion of the launch of RedHat Linux Enterprise 8, abbreviated to RHEL 8, the logo was also renewed with a more minimal and aesthetically appealing graphic style, eliminating the well-known shadowman.
If you'd like to learn more about the new RHEL 8, be sure to check out the its new product page . If you're not aware, RHEL is a paid product, but the Linux community creates separate distributions like CentOS that largely replicate the features of RHEL 8 but don't offer paid support.
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