Oracle Linux

What is Oracle Linux?

Oracle Linux (OL, formerly known as Oracle Enterprise Linux or OEL) is a Linux distribution packaged and freely distributed by Oracle, available partially under the GNU General Public License. It is compiled from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code, replacing Red Hat branding with Oracle"s. It is also used by Oracle Cloud and Oracle Engineered Systems such as Oracle Exadata and others.

 

The entire lifecycle of Oracle Linux

The following figure shows you the visualised product life cycle of Oracle Linux. You can see all releases with the latest patch version, the long-term support characteristics (orange flag in the green circle, the periods for version provision, maintenance and support.

Figure: Release, patch and end-of-life cycle of product Oracle Linux (Oracle)

 

What is the Oracle Linux release strategy?

Oracle Linux Premier Support and Oracle Linux Basic Support for Oracle Linux program releases 5, 6, 7, and 8 are available for ten years from the date a release of the Oracle Linux program becomes generally available. Support for Oracle Linux program may be extended for additional three years with Oracle Linux Extended Support. Unlike RHEL, Oracle Linux does not support point releases once a newer one is available. Once a new minor point release is available, the older one is immediately considered end of life and users must upgrade to continue receiving security updates. For example once 8.5 gets a general release, 8.4 is immediately end of life.

Facts and figures about Oracle Linux

 

 

Keywords

Oracle Linux

 

Oracle

 

Operating system

 

Release

 

Version

 

Major

 

Minor

 

Patch

 

End-of-life

 

EOL

 

Support

 

End-of-support

 

EOS

 

Maintenance

 

End-of-maintenance

 

EOM

 

Security

 

Long-term support

 

LTS

 

Vulnerabilities

 

Common vulnerabilities & exposures

 

CVE

 

Security