14 DAY TRIAL // Red Hat has announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 for all customers and partners, marking the end of an era.
The developers of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 have said that this will be the last update to be released in the series and that it concludes one of the longest support periods for a Linux distribution.
The distribution was released back in 2007 and it's been updated numerous times. The devs have continued to provide updates and various fixes for this OS, keeping it grounded in the present as much as possible. The truth is that RHEL 5 uses a very old Linux kernel (updated) and it still sports the old GNOME 2 desktop.
What's new in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11
"We are pleased to announce the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11, the final minor release of the mature Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 reiterates Red Hat’s commitment to a 10-year product lifecycle for all major Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases and offers a secure, stable, and reliable platform for critical enterprise applications," notes the official announcement.
According to the changelog, new storage drivers have been implemented (they provide customers with the benefits of some of the latest storage adapters from Red Hat hardware partners), enhancements have been implemented to Red Hat Access Support’s debugging capabilities (it's now easier for customers to manage, diagnose, and engage with Red Hat directly through a console within Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5), it's now possible to have Red Hat Enterprise Linux guests running on VMWare ESXi, and information is now provided from the subscription management services, which makes managing subscriptions easier through both the GUI and command line.
Also, OpenSCAP has been updated to version 1.0.8, which has been certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP), the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 kernel now includes an option to control the timeout value for I/O error recovery commands, and virt-who can now communicate with VMWare ESXi and obtain the host and guest mapping information.
"Red Hat’s commitment to a long, stable product lifecycle is a key benefit for enterprise customers who rely on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their critical applications. While Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 is the final minor release of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 platform, the enhancements it offers in terms of security and reliability are designed to maintain the platform’s viability for years to come," says Jim Totton, vice president and general manager for Red Hat.
More details about the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 release can be found in the official announcement. Please remember that RHEL 5 is not a free product and it's developed for business use.