in SUSECon In Berlin, SUSE, a global leader in Linux and cloud-native software, announced major improvements across the entire Linux distribution family. These new capabilities focus on providing faster time to value and lower operating costs, underscoring the importance of choice in today’s complex IT landscape.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 Service Pack (SP) 6 is at the heart of these upgrades. This update future-proofs IT workloads with the new Long Term Service (LTS) core support package. How long is the long term? Can you believe 19 years? This gives SLES a longer-term support period in the enterprise Linux market. until Ubuntu, which Canonical recently extended its LTS period to 12 yearsdoesn’t come close.
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You may ask yourself: “Why 19 years?” Rick Spencer, general manager of Business Critical Linux (BCL) at SUSE, explained in an interview that the reason is that at 03:14:08 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, also known as Coordinated Universal Time) Tuesday, January 19, 2038, we reached the end of Computing time. Well, not really, but Linux and all other Unix-based operating systems, including some versions of MacOS, arrive at something called squeeze out.
This is when the time-keeping code in 32-bit Unix-based operating systems reaches the end of the seconds that have been counted since the beginning of time – 00:00:00 GMT on January 1, 1970, until the Linux and Unix systems in question – and is reset to zero. Just like the Y2K bug, this means that all unpatched 32-bit operating systems and software will be compatible. The issue was fixed in the Linux kernel itself in the 2020 Linux 5.6 kernel, but many other programs did not address it.
Until then, if you’re still using the SLES 15 SP6, you’re covered. I highly suggest upgrading before then, but if you want to stick with this distribution until the bitter end, you can.
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Additionally, the new SLES features an updated 6.4 kernel. It also includes new libraries, e.g OpenSSL 3.1And ensure security in accordance with strict regulations.
As for security, SLES now boasts superiority Support confidential computing, which encrypts your data not only when it is stored or transmitted online, but in memory as well. SLES provides this additional level of security on systems using Intel TDX (Trusted Domain Extensions) and AMD SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization) processors. This includes remote certification with Susie’s managerensuring comprehensive capabilities for maximum security and compliance.
SAP users will also be happy to see them SLES for SAP 15 SP6 applications: This release provides SAP customers and partners with a secure and reliable Linux platform for running mission-critical SAP workloads, from the data center to the cloud. Includes access to the latest innovations from Trentoan open source web application that helps system administrators avoid common infrastructure issues with SAP systems that can lead to service execution delays or unplanned downtime.
If you prefer a lightweight Linux distro Edge computing or smaller servers, SUSE also released SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.0. This immutable, lightweight, and secure open source host operating system is optimized for containerized and virtualized workloads. It simplifies standalone container deployments and provides a stable platform Kubernetes Deployments. It also includes full disk encryption support to enhance the security of your data.
SUSE is also building its own AI platform using its own Linux distribution called Use you. This isn’t your typical AI game. Instead of creating their own large language model (LLM) and chatbot, SUSE provides the tools companies need to build their own secure AI programs. For example, if you want to use your own data without worrying about someone looking over your virtual shoulder to create a smart, AI-powered problem solver for your products, SUSE enables you to create exactly that.
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On one side of the main SUSE family is the latest Linux version of SUSE, Susie Liberty Light Linux. This distro is a replacement for CentOS 7, which, although still very popular, will reach the end of its supported life on June 30. SUSE’s answer is a real alternative. You can literally change your repositories from CentOS to Liberty Lite and keep running.
Furthermore, Liberty Linux Lite is the first Linux distribution built on Open the Linux Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA) code base.. In OpenELA, CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE joined forces to create a Linux codebase for RHEL clones.
No matter which SLES you’re running, you can use it Susi Manager 5.0 To keep tabs on your server and Linux instances. In fact, SUSE Manager supports much more than just the SLES family. It now supports more than 16 different Linux distributions. These include Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), its many copies; debian; Mint; and Ubuntu Linux. In fact, you can even use it with Raspberry Pi OS, formerly Raspian, so you can manage Raspberry Pis as well as larger irons.
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SUSE Manager, based on Salt DevOps Systems, Provides automated patching and compliance management for any Linux system, anywhere and at any scale. It is containerized for increased flexibility, scalability and portability, and adds the remote authentication capabilities of SLEX 15 SP6.
Get the picture? SUSE remains fully committed to SLES. In fact, the company is already working on additional innovations for the next major release of its leading business-critical Linux platform: SLES 16 and SLES for SAP Applications 16, coming in 2025. Tomorrow looks bright for both SUSE and Linux.