{"slug": "rocky-linux", "name": "Rocky Linux", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 7, "warners": 1, "score": 2.571, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-02-19", "latest": "2026-08-19", "why": "Or rocky, which is a 1:1 clone of RHEL that doesn't require licenses.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Or rocky, which is a 1:1 clone of RHEL that doesn't require licenses.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "rockylinux.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://rockylinux.org/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Rocky Linux"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 781250960, "item_id": 48828185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828185", "by": "theNotFractured", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Or rocky, which is a 1:1 clone of RHEL that doesn't require licenses.", "excerpt": "Or rocky, which is a 1:1 clone of RHEL that doesn't require licenses. https://rockylinux.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "Free RHEL-compatible server OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS"}, {"id": 754181235, "item_id": 47136327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136327", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd personally reach for Rocky Linux which is a nicer experience", "excerpt": ">> All around, never use debian-family outside servers. Fedora is the future. That take in of itself also feels... uncommon? My experience matches yours more or less, I've run both Debian (and their LTS project version at one point) and Ubuntu LTS on my servers, both have been generally okay, albeit with a snag or two along the way. https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/debian-and-grub-are-broken https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What it means that Ubuntu is using Rust"}, {"id": 753358402, "item_id": 47084900, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47084900", "by": "avhception", "date": "2026-02-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gave up and switched to RockyLinux.", "excerpt": "I think it's highly circumstantial. For example, my personal servers run a lot of FreeBSD and even though I could stay on major releases for a rather long time, I usually upgrade almost as soon as new releases are available. For servers at work, I tried running Fedora. The idea was that it would be easier to have small, frequent updates rather than large, infrequent updates. Didn't work. App developers never had enou", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "Fedora", "story": "An ARM Homelab Server, or a Minisforum MS-R1 Review"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 767694288, "item_id": 47980893, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47980893", "by": "skrtskrt", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "shipping broken releases early on and them fighting with users about it", "excerpt": "I mean here are just a few of the issues re: the founding https://hackernoon.com/the-case-against-rocky-linux If you\u2019re \u201cpretty tuned in\u201d you would at least know that all this founder & foundation fluff is a load of corporate PR BS. I was also referring to them shipping broken releases early on and them fighting with users about it instead of fixing and figuring out why they were publishing broken garbage.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenWarp"}]}], "who": [{"by": "quipacorn", "context": "DevOps for an open source project; operates small web hosting company; PhD in Physics", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359954", "date": "2026-06-01"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["free rhel-compatible server os", "hpc cluster os"], "compared": [{"slug": "fedora", "name": "Fedora", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "debian", "name": "Debian", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49354613", "title": "Solo \u2013 a .so loader for static Linux binaries", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48827325", "title": "How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48357724", "title": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975571", "title": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970622", "title": "OpenWarp", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47125286", "title": "What it means that Ubuntu is using Rust", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 789751424, "item_id": 49359464, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49359464", "by": "duskdozer", "date": "2026-08-19", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Rocky Linux 8 is supported by the Rocky Linux project until May 2029.", "excerpt": "Almost three years? >Rocky Linux 8 is supported by the Rocky Linux project until May 2029. https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/what-is-eol-of-rl8/3316/3", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Solo \u2013 a .so loader for static Linux binaries"}, {"id": 781250960, "item_id": 48828185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828185", "by": "theNotFractured", "date": "2026-07-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Or rocky, which is a 1:1 clone of RHEL that doesn't require licenses.", "excerpt": "Or rocky, which is a 1:1 clone of RHEL that doesn't require licenses. https://rockylinux.org/", "context": "", "use_case": "Free RHEL-compatible server OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to Build a Minimal ZFS NAS Without Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS"}, {"id": 773759273, "item_id": 48359954, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48359954", "by": "quipacorn", "date": "2026-06-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Platforms/infra: Linux (Rocky/Debian/Arch), Hetzner, AWS, Colo/On Prem.", "excerpt": "Location: US (WA) Remote: Preferred Willing to relocate: Depends on the role. I would prefer to stay in the PNW if possible. Technologies: * Languages: Python (proficient), Bash (proficient), JS/GO/SQL (working) * DevOps: Kubernetes, Ansible, Docker, Zabbix, DNS (TinyDNS/bind), Harvester, Netbox, KeaDHCP, CI/CD * Platforms/infra: Linux (Rocky/Debian/Arch), Hetzner, AWS, Colo/On Prem. * HPC/ML: SLURM, Ceph, TF/Keras/P", "context": "DevOps for an open source project; operates small web hosting company; PhD in Physics", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 767708976, "item_id": 47981811, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47981811", "by": "gf-data-systems", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "manage and evolve our Rocky Linux cluster", "excerpt": "General Fusion | Senior HPC System Administrator | Richmond, BC, Canada | ONSITE or HYBRID (3 days/week) | Full-Time | $126k-$154k CAD | Immigration support for US candidates General Fusion is a fusion energy startup (est. 2002) operating a fusion demonstration machine (LM26) at our Richmond, BC labs. We're hiring an HPC Admin to manage and evolve our Rocky Linux cluster (70 nodes, 1PB storage, SLURM) and help shape ", "context": "", "use_case": "HPC cluster OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 767694288, "item_id": 47980893, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47980893", "by": "skrtskrt", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "shipping broken releases early on and them fighting with users about it", "excerpt": "I mean here are just a few of the issues re: the founding https://hackernoon.com/the-case-against-rocky-linux If you\u2019re \u201cpretty tuned in\u201d you would at least know that all this founder & foundation fluff is a load of corporate PR BS. I was also referring to them shipping broken releases early on and them fighting with users about it instead of fixing and figuring out why they were publishing broken garbage.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenWarp"}, {"id": 754181235, "item_id": 47136327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47136327", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-02-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd personally reach for Rocky Linux which is a nicer experience", "excerpt": ">> All around, never use debian-family outside servers. Fedora is the future. That take in of itself also feels... uncommon? My experience matches yours more or less, I've run both Debian (and their LTS project version at one point) and Ubuntu LTS on my servers, both have been generally okay, albeit with a snag or two along the way. https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/debian-and-grub-are-broken https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "What it means that Ubuntu is using Rust"}, {"id": 753358402, "item_id": 47084900, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47084900", "by": "avhception", "date": "2026-02-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gave up and switched to RockyLinux.", "excerpt": "I think it's highly circumstantial. For example, my personal servers run a lot of FreeBSD and even though I could stay on major releases for a rather long time, I usually upgrade almost as soon as new releases are available. For servers at work, I tried running Fedora. The idea was that it would be easier to have small, frequent updates rather than large, infrequent updates. Didn't work. App developers never had enou", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "Fedora", "story": "An ARM Homelab Server, or a Minisforum MS-R1 Review"}]}