Rocky Linux from CIQ – Hardened

by LaSombraon 3/19/2025, 8:43 AMwith 48 comments

by neilvon 3/21/2025, 11:10 PM

Can someone confirm or fill in details?

* CentOS used to be a free rebranding of RHEL.

* IBM effectively cut off CentOS.

* Rocky Linux is the replacement free RHEL-compatible distro, but is higher effort to maintain than CentOS was.

* "Rocky Linux from CIQ" is a commercial product that is attempting to compete with RHEL, by being lower-cost essentially-RHEL while still satisfying some is-there-a-company-behind-it "compliance" checkboxes that companies require?

* "Rocky Linux from CIQ - Hardened" offers some supposed security improvements that vanilla RHEL doesn't?

by 999900000999on 3/22/2025, 12:26 AM

>Secure All packages validated and delivered via secure supply chain from CIQ repositories.

How deep does this go.

Are they inspecting every line of code in every source repo ?

What happens when I need a package they haven't validated yet ?

by owl_visionon 3/22/2025, 1:23 AM

as seen on the about page[0] "Named in honor of CentOS co-founder Rocky McGaugh"

"Gregory Kurtzer, our CEO and founder," the other CentOS guy.

[0]https://ciq.com/company/founding-story/

by client4on 3/21/2025, 11:19 PM

But is it FIPS certified?

by rob_con 3/22/2025, 1:46 AM

And more drama from the machine that is being the FUD created over every misstep of RHEL/IBM. And I mean misstep not evil attack on the community. CIQ is the worst of FOSS and a blight causing nonsense arguing rather than actually contributing to a better community.

by gbraadon 3/22/2025, 4:50 PM

Oh wait, it is a commercial offering ... Hardened? What do they actually do besides repackaging. I fail to see what this provides over RHEL or even AlmaLinux. They will always be a downstream/derivative who does not really engage with the upstream.

by e40on 3/22/2025, 12:05 AM

How much?