OpenELA announced the public release of the Enterprise Linux source code along with important technical and governance milestones. OpenELA is a trade association of open source Enterprise Linux distribution developers originally founded by CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE. It exists to encourage development and collaboration of distributions compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by providing open and free Enterprise Linux (EL) source code.
The founding sponsors of OpenELA are initializing a basis for the community, and the most important effort has been the creation of the code base. OpenELA announced that the source code for all packages necessary for anyone to build a derivative Enterprise Linux operating system is now available. The initial focus is on EL8 and EL9, and packages for EL7 are forthcoming. The project is committed to ensuring the continued availability of EL sources to the community indefinitely.
OpenELA was incorporated as a Delaware nonprofit nonstock corporation exclusively for the purpose of operating under 501(c)(6) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.
The corporation will provide a forum for stakeholders interested in supporting the goals and interests of developing open source enterprise Linux distributions. OpenELA is in the process of applying to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(6) tax-exempt status. The founding companies view the legal entity as a foundational tool to make a positive impact on the open source effort, in aligning the values of the effort and ensuring proper engagement with the open source community.
OpenELA has also completed the formation of its Technical Steering Committee (TSC). The TSC plays a crucial role in the governance and decision-making process of OpenELA, overseeing the technical aspects of the project and guiding its development and ongoing maintenance.
The TSC initially consists of highly experienced individuals from the founding companies who will administrate access to the top-level OpenELA git organizations. TCS membership is expected to evolve over time.
The TSC is key to OpenELA’s technical vision, as it represents the interests of the community facilitating collaboration while helping to ensure the security of the code and community and providing the environment for continued code availability and maintenance of the code base.
“When we formed OpenELA earlier this year, we made a number of promises to the open source developer community,” said Wim Coekaerts, head of Oracle Linux development, Oracle. “With today’s announcement of the availability of the source code for packages, the completed incorporation, and the formation of the technical steering committee, we are delivering on our promises and our commitment to helping and maintaining the ability for anyone to develop compatible EL distributions. We’re extremely excited to reach these important milestones, and we look forward to seeing adoption of and collaboration around OpenELA expanding.
OpenELA welcomes all organizations focused on delivering reliable and secure access to Enterprise Linux packages and build systems. OpenELA seeks to build robust, community-driven standards that ensure impartiality and equilibrium in the broad EL ecosystem.
For more information about this news, visit www.oracle.com.