The release of Enterprise Linux 4 next month is a significant one for Raleigh, North Carolina-based Red Hat because it is the first version of the company’s commercial Linux product to be based fully on version 2.6 of the Linux kernel.
Red Hat has included some of the enhancement of Linux kernel 2.6 in Enterprise Linux 3, but the release of Enterprise Linux 4 will put the company at least on a par with Linux rival Novell Corp, which released SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, based on the 2.6 kernel, in August 2004.
The announcement of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, which has been in beta testing since September 2004, is expected to coincide with LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston next month.
It will be available for a range of processor platforms, including 32-bit X86, AMD64 and Intel EM64T, Intel Itanium 2, IBM PowerPC, and IBM S/390, and will also be the first version of Enterprise Linux to be delivered in four product variants, following the release of the Red Hat Desktop in May 2004.
With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, Red Hat will also debut Security Enhanced Linux functionality in its enterprise product. The company has already previewed functionality from the National Security Association’s SELinux project in the unsupported Fedora version of Linux, which serves as both the community level project and a test-bed for Enterprise Linux functionality.
A week after the expected launch of Enterprise Linux 4, the first test version of Fedora Core 4 will be released to the Fedora community, giving a peak at some of the functionality that will eventually be included in Enterprise Linux 5 and beyond.
The new schedule for Fedora Core 4 sees the test2 version being delivered in March, followed by test3 in April, and general availability in May. The release of the test2 version in March will also see the end of development for Fedora Core 2 as it moves to the Fedora Legacy Project.
Details of key developments in Fedora Core 4 are so far thin on the ground, although Red Hat has stated that key functionality enhancements targeted for inclusion beyond Enterprise Linux 5 include the addition of directory services functionality Red Hat acquired along with Netscape’s security technologies in October 2004.
The addition of this functionality should aid Red Hat’s Stateless Linux project to enable network-based diskless deployment of the Linux operating system. Server virtualization is also in the road map for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
