Summary: Linux leader Red Hat announced an upgrade of its Linux that offers better support for the latest hardware, OpenJDK, security, Samba 3.8 and Microsoft Hyper-V
Red Hat announced today an update of its leading enterprise Linux distribution that keeps pace with hardware, security, developer, interoperability and virtualization improvements.
The last upgrade in the 5 family, version 5.8, shipped last February. Version 5.9 demonstrates the company's commitment to a 10-year suport lifespan for each platform, the company notes.
The company will continue to add value to older Linux platforms to give customers maximum flexibility in how and when they upgrade. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4, for instance, moved into beta testing last month.
Red Hat's formal statement about Enterprise Linux 5.9, which was released today, cites the platform's:
- Support for Industry-Leading Hardware Vendors Through Enhanced Hardware Enablement. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 showcases the strong relationships Red Hat has with leading hardware vendors by including support for some of the latest CPU, chipset and device driver enhancements.
- Continued Commitment to Security, Standards and Certifications. Red Hat Enterprise Linux has always been built with security in mind – a commitment that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 helps solidify. This update features tighter security controls, the ability to verify and check the robustness of new passwords and support for the latest government password policy requirements. It also adds support for using Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) mode with dmraid root devices. FIPS mode now supports RAID device discovery, RAID set activation, and the creation, removal, rebuilding and displaying of properties.
- New Developer Tools. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 includes several new developer-friendly features and tools, including the ability to develop and test with the latest version of open source Java available through OpenJDK 7. Many new SystemTap improvements have been added to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9, including compile-server and client support for IPv6 networks, smaller SystemTap files, faster compiles, and compile server support for multiple concurrent connections.
- Enhanced Application Support. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 includes a new rsyslog5 package, which upgrades rsyslog to major version 5 and is faster and more reliable than existing rsyslog packages available in previous RHEL releases. Samba has also been updated to version 3.6 with several new features, including SMB2 support, a reworked print server and security default improvements for all versions.
- New Virtualization Capabilities and Flexibility in Multi-vendor Environments. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 enhances the operating system's usability in multi-vendor environments by introducing Microsoft Hyper-V drivers for improved performance. This enhances the usability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for guests in heterogenous, multi-vendor virtualized environments and provides improved flexibility and interoperability for enterprises.
- Better Subscription Management. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9 uses Red Hat Subscription Management as the default, allowing customers to effectively and more easily manage their Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions locally or with tools such as Subscription Asset Manager which was enhanced to easily run reports on subscription distribution and utilization and an improved user interface. For more detail on how Red Hat customers can manage their subscriptions, please visit the Subscription Management section of the Red Hat Customer Portal.
