Hi all,
Long Live Rocky Linux !
Michel-André
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Heil Rocky Linux —
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Hmm why is it called Rocky Linux?
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Gregory said:
Thinking back to early CentOS days… My cofounder was Rocky McGaugh. He is no longer with us, so as a H/T to him, who never got to see the success that CentOS came to be, I introduce to you… Rocky Linux.
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Oh nice. I also like to think of it as a rocky start, or a distribution with massive greatness and stability like the rocky mountains.
I wonder what Rocky Linux will be like in a few years from now. Maybe it’ll be as ubiquitos as CentOS. Or maybe not, if a lot of people switch to other platforms. I wonder how many might switch to Oracle Linux.
It is cool to witness the (re)birth of a potentially major distribution 
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A distro as stable as a rock 
(not the official reason).
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At first Rocky Linux sounded a bit wacky to me. Maybe because im not a native speaker.
But when I heard about the background of the name, it instantly became the best name to pick.
And someone suggestes the term “Rocky Enterprise Linux” - REL. I could sell that one to managment. 
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Second REL… and what a thrill to be part of a new enterprise distribution’s birth.
btw… hi @michelandre
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Long Live Rocky Linux! It’s new beginning!
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Hi @robb,
Very interesting to be present in the delivery room of a child dedicated to the highest aspirations of so many linuxians.
Michel-André
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Nobody knows for sure. It can end up on nothing or it can overtake CentOS. Red Hat could revert their decision at any point for example. Very unlikely as IBM is the new owner.
Yes, that is more likely how it will be called and referred by most, Rocky Enterprise Linux.
The Enterprise part is important because it’s supposed to follow what CentOS represents now (or did at least until a few days…). Not Fedora or any other rolling release OS. But a stable, slow release OS that follows as closely Red Hat. Companies and IT wants something that is rock solid, hence the name Rocky makes sense. The name also touches on something personally for me, which makes me like it even more.
CentOS was never really a fit for desktop users, Fedora is better suited for that. CentOS was always the first choice for servers and production systems without having to give money upfront to RHEL.
And the Linux part is probably just important in order that people understand you are talking about a software, an operating system product.
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Hi netz,
A lost word can’t be remade no matter what you do.
Michel-André
Lucky for me, I did not upgrade a single server from CentOS 7 to 8. What Red Hat announced, that they are not going to support CentOS 8 in one year is an insult for everyone that just deployed CentOS 8 expecting long term support. At least it seems they are going to sick with the CentOS 7 EOL timeframe because its what most people are still using, and they don’t want to alienate everyone as a whole. This gives everyone plenty to time to migrate to some alternative, hopefully it can be Rocky Linux at that point.
But I agree with you. Even if they back pedal once they realize this was a very bad business decision, trust is lost already.
My concern is just how closely will Rocky Enterprise Linux be able to follow RHEL, in particularly with security patches.
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Maybe now we can finally get an official WSL image for s/CentOS/RockyLinux/g
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I appreciate the history behind the name but I think it’s a poor choice.
“It’s a rocky platform” is the obvious snark. “Rocky Enterprise” sounds like an organization about to file for bankruptcy.
Rocky Balboa? Rocky the Squirrel? Neither are great associations. I’ve known people nicknamed Rocky and they tend to be moxie-fueled teens rather than serious professionals.
Now Gibraltar or some other stability-cognating name would be good…
Long Live Rocky Linux!
In terms of the name this is going to be about what we as a community do – how we act and how well we learn the lessons from past endeavors. We can totally co-opt “Rocky” as being rock solid. You might describe a huge mountain for example as being ‘rocky’ and a sturdy mountain is (in my mind) a good image to foster for Rocky Linux.
I’ll admit the name seemed a little odd until I learned of the history, and then it made me happy. It felt like something a community would do, and coming from what just happened in the CentOS community, I like it.
IMO the best outlet for this energy right now is to continue to get this community up and running and the technical output along with it – the actual Rocky Linux.
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Big blue can ride ANYTHING into the ground.
This also came to my mind initially. I was concerned that it would spell like Rocky OS as bad.
But then I came up with Rock Solid which turns it completely into positive. Like Rock Solid = Stability which is what you want with an enterprise OS.
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Count me in, I will miss CentOS!
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