Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a Linux distribution developed by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server editions for x86, x86_64, Itanium, PowerPC and IBM System z architectures, and desktop editions for x86 and x86_64 processors. All of Red Hat's official support and training and the Red Hat Certification Program centres around the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat uses strict trademark rules to restrict free re-distribution of its officially supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but still freely provides its source code. Third-party derivatives can be built and redistributed by stripping away non-free components.
Red Hat has announced the availability of a beta release for the distribution's upcoming major release - Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8. The beta release focuses on security, Application Streams and Linux container technologies: "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 beta introduces the concept of Application Streams to deliver userspace packages more simply and with greater flexibility. Userspace components can now update more quickly than core operating system packages and without having to wait for the next major version of the operating system. Multiple versions of the same package, for example, an interpreted language or a database, can also be made available for installation via an application stream. This helps to deliver greater agility and user-customized versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux without impacting the underlying stability of the platform or specific deployments." Further information can be found in the company's release announcement and in the release notes. This beta release of RHEL 8.0 is available for public download and testing without registration: rhel-8.0-beta-1-x86_64-dvd.iso (6,642MB, pkglist). ISO images for IBM Power Systems Little Endian, IBM z Systems and ARM 64-bit are also provided.
