14 DAY TRIAL // After two Release Candidate (RC) development builds, the final version of the Scientific Linux 7.3 operating system arrived today, January 26, 2017, as announced by developer Pat Riehecky.
Derived from the freely distributed sources of the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 operating system, Scientific Linux 7.3 includes many updated components and all the GNU/Linux/Open Source technologies from the upstream release.
Of course, all of Red Hat Enterprise Linux's specific packages have been removed from Scientific Linux, which now supports Scientific Linux Contexts, allowing users to create local customization for their computing needs much more efficiently than before.
It also updates the Anaconda installer to be less intrusive for non-context users, deprecates the 4.7GV install media due to the large size of the release, and updates the OpenAFS open source implementation of the Andrew File System to version 1.6.20.
Booting Scientific Linux 7.3 on UEFI Secure Boot PCs needs user intervention
Today's Scientific Linux 7.3 release also includes various improvements for booting the operating system on UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) machines with Secure Boot enabled, but user intervention is still required.
"Booting SL7 [Scientific Linux 7.3] with Secure Boot enabled works but requires a manual step. This is because the 'shim' has not been signed by the UEFI CA," explains Pat Riehecky in the release announcement, where you can also find specific instructions.
Other than that, Scientific Linux 7.3 includes a new Scientific Linux End User License Agreement (EULA), which contains detailed information about the U.S. Government contract under which the Fermilab company produces the Scientific Linux OS.
We recommend checking out the release notes if you want to know which Scientific Linux-specific packages have been added in this new major update, as well as to learn how to upgrade from Scientific Linux 6 series.
The Scientific Linux 7.3 64-bit (x86_64) ISO image is available for download right now on our website if you want to install the distribution on your computer(s). Scientific Linux is the OS of choice at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.