14 DAY TRIAL // Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.9 has been released. This is the final minor update to what is now the oldest officially supported Red Hat release, after which Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 will move into the third and final phase of support. The current stable release is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, available since last fall.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.9 comes with several updates, bug fixes and better hardware support.
"Red Hat is pleased to announce the availability of the latest update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, release 4.9 (with kernel-2.6.9-100.EL) for a family of products," the official announcement read.
The latest release includes better support for some Intel processors, due to an utility which updates the CPU microcode at boot time.
The OProfile now supports Intel Xeon (Nehalem) processors, Red Hat says. Also included in the update is the latest stable version of the popular Mozilla browser Firefox 3.6.13. KornShell has been updated to ksh93t+.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.9 also includes a long list of kernel bug fixes, all labeled as urgent or high-priority. There is now support for the Intel architectural performance monitoring subsystem arch_perfmon.
OpenOffice 2.0 is now included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.9 but only as a Technology Preview, meaning that it is not officially supported but is provided for those looking for a slightly more up-to-date version.
"This is the final minor release for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. With this release Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 will be entering Production 3 phase during which qualified security Errata Advisories of critical impact, as well as, selected urgent priority bug-fix errata may be released," Red Hat explained.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 will continue to be supported until February 29, 2012. However, during phase three, there will be no new features or new hardware support introduced. All future updates will focus solely on bug and security fixes.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.9 updates can be downloaded by all existing RHEL subscribers via the Red Hat Networks service.