SUSE Takes on Red Hat: Unveils Official RHEL Fork with $10 Million Investment

SUSE announces official fork of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with $10 million investments in coming years.

SUSE, a leading global provider of enterprise open-source solutions, made a significant announcement today. The company revealed its plans to fork Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), a widely used Linux distribution, and develop its own version. This move aims to create a RHEL-compatible distribution that will be accessible to all users without any restrictions. SUSE has committed to investing more than $10 million into this ambitious project over the next few years.

In a statement, Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen, the CEO of SUSE, emphasized the importance of collaboration and shared success within the open-source community. He stated, “For decades, collaboration and shared success have been the building blocks of our open-source community. We have a responsibility to defend these values. This investment will preserve the flow of innovation for years to come and ensures that customers and community alike are not subjected to vendor lock-in and have a genuine choice tomorrow as well as today.”

While SUSE remains fully dedicated to enhancing its existing Linux solutions, such as SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) and openSUSE, the company acknowledges the need for providing enterprises and the open-source community with greater choice and freedom from vendor lock-in. SUSE has a long-standing history of empowering and supporting users in mixed Linux environments, and this new endeavor aligns with its commitment to meeting the evolving needs of its customers and community.

SUSE is actively engaging with the open-source community to develop a compatible alternative for RHEL and CentOS users. The company aims to collaborate on a long-term, enduring solution, ensuring compatibility and stability. Furthermore, SUSE plans to contribute this project to an open-source foundation, thereby granting ongoing free access to alternative source code.

Dr. Thomas Di Giacomo, SUSE’s Chief Technology and Product Officer, expressed SUSE’s unwavering dedication to fostering innovation and community-driven development. He stated, “This collaborative effort demonstrates SUSE’s deep-rooted commitment to fostering innovation and nurturing community-driven development, and it reinforces the fundamental values of open-source software. We invite the community to actively engage and collaborate in shaping the future of this essential software. We firmly believe this new RHEL-compatible Linux distribution, together with SUSE’s portfolio, will help the community and customers navigate unprecedented advancements in enterprise Linux, cloud computing, containerization, edge, AI/ML, and other emerging technologies.“

The need for standardization, stability, and consistency in the enterprise Linux community was highlighted by Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ and Founder of Rocky Linux. He expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration, stating, “CIQ is bringing stability to our partners, customers, and community by building a broad coalition of like-minded companies, organizations, and individuals. SUSE has embodied the core principles and spirit of open source; CIQ is thrilled to collaborate with SUSE on advancing an open enterprise Linux standard.”

SUSE’s announcement of its RHEL fork marks a significant milestone in the open-source world. By investing substantial resources and collaborating with the community, SUSE aims to create a compelling alternative for RHEL users, promoting innovation, choice, and freedom from vendor lock-in.

You can read the announcement on this page.

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