Red Hat Extends RHEL Life Cycle to 10 Years

Red Hat, Inc. has extended the production life cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6 from seven to 10 years. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle is designed to reduce the level of change within each major release over time and aims to make release availability and content more predictable.

The press release states that, “For some IT environments, upgrading to a new version of an operating system requires detailed advance planning. Red Hat extended the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle so customers can remain on their current version longer. For many years, enterprises have chosen Red Hat as their strategic operating system provider because of the functionality and product stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This, coupled with support and the broad ecosystem of certified hardware platforms and ISV applications from Red Hat partners, makes it highly suitable for long-term deployments. With the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle, customers will benefit from continued feature enhancements while Red Hat’s ABI and API compatibility leverages their application investments.”

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6 life cycle now consists of three Production Phases totaling 10 years followed by a three-year Extended Life Phase.

For more information, visit http://www.redhat.com/rhel/lifecycle or read the press release.