SUSE announces 'tech and support' product Liberty Linux
Run, run like RHEL
Updated SUSE appears to have released a support product to help IT admins run "a mixed Linux environment" in the form of Liberty Linux.
The service package includes consolidated maintenance patches, security updates, and "white glove" services support.
SUSE chief technology officer Thomas Di Giacomo said Liberty would include "enterprise-grade support" from the company, including what was described as "optional proven management tools" – although only SUSE Manager was mentioned. Manager is an automation tool for building images, reboots, and patch and config changes.
Di Giacomo added that maintenance and security patches are tested to be binary compatible. No pricing was mentioned.
SUSE characterizes Liberty variously as a "technology and support offering that provides customers a unified support experience for managing their heterogeneous IT environments," "a technology and support solution," and "a tech and support model for existing Linux, not another new Linux distribution."
If you want to untangle its messaging, and get a demo of it, you need to contact the sales team. Some more info is here. ®
Update
From what our sources told us, and as we first reported, we understood Liberty Linux to be a SUSE rebuild of CentOS 8, aimed at RHEL 8 compatibility, and effectively a new distribution. What was actually launched by SUSE in the end was a "technology and support solution." We've updated our article to reflect this, and we'll let you know what really happened to Liberty Linux as soon as we can.