Hands on: I tried the latest version of Rocky Linux – read how it compares to other distros
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This comment first appeared in issue 354 PC Pro.
Rocky Linux is one of the youngest distributions around, first appearing in mid-2021. It is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linuxso in some ways, it’s a natural home for those who previously operated Centos, a community-backed Red Hat version that ended in December 2020.
The first version of Rocky is version 8.3, reflecting the fact that it is based on the same version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Despite the appearance of version 8.9 two days after 9.3, the version 8 lines are still the latest, which itself is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3. This is the version we tested here. The end of life of Rocky 9 Line is May 2032. For Rocky 8, it is May 2029.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses Fedora source code in its development, so Fedora and Rocky can naturally share several touchpoints. However, if Fedora 39 is built on the 6.6.3 kernel, Rock Linux 9.3 is built on the same 5.14 Linux kernel as Red Hat 9.3. Although this may be outdated, this is not a problem, as Red Hat uses a system called Backporting to implement fixes and features in an existing kernel while maintaining compatibility with overlay applications.
Installation is very simple. There is no media builder, but Fedora, so it’s the case of downloading ISO and using Balenaetcher or similar to writing it to a bootable thumb drive. The full DVD ISO is a giant beast that tilts the scale to 9GB. However, there are some lighter “boot” and “minimum” builds that can be used to enter rescue mode and install the operating system from alternative sources such as online repositories. There are four processor Build, cover x86_64, armPowerPC and IBM S390X servers (although only the first two are available for Rocky 8). Dig deeper and you will find specific Raspberry pi In the Alternative Image Library.
Although GNOME is the default window manager, you can swap it to KDE, XFCE, Mate, or Cinnamon.
We chose DVD ISO And, once you start and run, you get stuck in GNOME 40.4 if you are used to the Gnome 45. operating systemour 9GB download doesn’t have much to display. Firefox Preinstalled, but no email client, office suite or image editor. These are all available through software applications, and we’re happy to see the Thunderbird version available through the repository for 115 (which benefits from a major redesign). However, libreofficeif we choose to install it through the default repository, it will be version 7.1 (the latest version is 7.6), GIMP lags one point behind the latest version, while Inkscape is 1.1.1 and its latest stable version is 1.3.2.
Further hurdles: When the system is first started and updated, the two printers on our network are not recognized yet, and we need to enter their IP address in the Printer Settings dialog to add it to the OS.
There are not so many steps in this kind of distribution. Rocky Linux 9.3 returns a considerable 1,097 in single-core Geekbench tests and 3,112 in multi-core tests. Despite the different kernels, this is roughly similar to the scores we see when testing under Fedora, which are 1,105 and 3,053 respectively. In either case, we will be surprised if this makes a significant difference in daily use.
Our verdict is so similar to Fedora, and it’s our second place in Ubuntu, perhaps no surprise. After all, they are breads of Red Hat Sandwiches, sitting at either end of the development chain. If you don’t want to run a Debian-based operating system, it can be a great option, well supported, and closely matched with one of the outstanding commercial Linux publishers.
Of these two, we will choose a fedora. There are three reasons. First, it gets us up and runs faster. Second, for bundled GNOME 45 and third, including the included wider preinstalled default applications, each running a recent build.
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