CIQ, Oracle and SUSE Create OpenEL Association for a Collaborative and Open Future

• New trade association brings together open source Enterprise Linux community
• It will provide an open process to access source code that organizations can use to build distributions compatible with RHEL

RENO, Nev., AUSTIN, Texas, and LUXEMBOURG—August 10, 2023—CIQ, Oracle and SUSE today announced their intent to form the OpenEL Association (OpenELA), a collaborative trade association to encourage the development of distributions compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by providing open and free Enterprise Linux (EL) source code.

The formation of OpenELA arises from Red Hat’s recent changes to RHEL source code availability. In response, CIQ, Oracle and SUSE are collaborating to deliver source code, tools and systems through OpenELA for the community.

“Collaboration is critical to fostering innovation, which is why we welcome everyone to be part of this association and help us uphold open community standards,” said Thomas Di Giacomo, chief technology and product officer of SUSE. “SUSE is a strong believer in making choice happen. Together with the open source community we will redefine what it truly means to be open and deliver a stronger future for EL.”

“Today’s announcement marks the beginning of a new era for EL,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ. “With OpenELA, CIQ, Oracle and SUSE join forces with the open source community to ensure a stable and resilient future for both upstream and downstream communities to leverage Enterprise Linux."

“Many large organizations reached out to us to express the importance of community-driven source code for EL that can act as a starting point for compatible distributions,” said Wim Coekaerts, head of Oracle Linux development, Oracle. “OpenELA is our response to this need, and it represents a commitment to helping the open source community continue to develop compatible EL distributions.”

Starting later this year, OpenELA will provide sources necessary for downstreams compatible with RHEL to exist, with initial focus on RHEL versions EL8, EL9 and possibly EL7. The project is committed to ensuring the continued availability of OpenELA sources to the community indefinitely.

OpenELA’s core tenets, reflecting the spirit of the project, include full compliance with this existing standard, swift updates and secure fixes, transparency, community, and ensuring the resource remains free and redistributable for all.

By welcoming other organizations and community members to join and contribute actively, OpenELA seeks to build a robust, community-driven standard that ensures impartiality and equilibrium in the EL ecosystem.

For more information about and to get involved with OpenELA, please visit www.OpenELA.org/join.

This news release is also available in the newsrooms at CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE.

About CIQ

CIQ powers the next generation of software infrastructure, leveraging capabilities from enterprise, cloud, hyperscale and HPC. From the base operating system, through containers, orchestration, provisioning, computing, and up to cloud applications, CIQ works with every part of the technology stack to drive solutions for customers and communities with stable, scalable, secure production environments. CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux, and the creator of the next generation federated computing stack. For more information, please visit ciq.com.

About Oracle

Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Trademarks: Oracle, Java, MySQL and NetSuite are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. NetSuite was the first cloud company—ushering in the new era of cloud computing.

About SUSE

SUSE is a global leader in innovative, reliable and secure enterprise-grade open source solutions, relied upon by more than 60% of the Fortune 500 to power their mission-critical workloads. The company behind Rancher, NeuVector and SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE), SUSE collaborates with partners and communities to empower customers to innovate everywhere – from the data center to the cloud, to the edge and beyond. SUSE puts the “open” back in open source, giving customers the ability to tackle innovation challenges today and the freedom to evolve their strategy and solutions tomorrow. The company employs more than 2,400 people globally and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.suse.com.

Media Contacts:

CIQ
Patricia Tantow
ptantow@ciq.com
1-415-724-4770

Oracle
Drew Smith
drew.j.smith@oracle.com
1-415-336-1103

SUSE
Sara Matheson
Sara.matheson@suse.com
+44 (0) 7960 191229