RHEL (and Rocky and Alma Linux) 9.4 Released - Plus AI Offerings

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 has been released. But also released is Rocky Linux 9.4, reports 9to5Linux:Rocky Linux 9.4 also adds openSUSE's KIWI next-generation appliance builder as a new image build workflow and process for building images that are feature complete with the old images... Under the hood, Rocky Linux 9.4 includes the same updated components from the upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 This week also saw the release of Alma Linux 9.4 stable (the "forever-free enterprise Linux distribution... binary compatible with RHEL.") The Register points out that while Alma Linux is "still supporting some aging hardware that the official RHEL 9.4 drops, what's new is largely the same in them both." And last week also saw the launch of the AlmaLinux High-Performance Computing and AI Special Interest Group (SIG). HPCWire reports:"AlmaLinux's status as a community-driven enterprise Linux holds incredible promise for the future of HPC and AI," said Hayden Barnes, SIG leader and Senior Open Source Community Manager for AI Software at HPE. "Its transparency and stability empowers researchers, developers and organizations to collaborate, customize and optimize their computing environments, fostering a culture of innovation and accelerating breakthroughs in scientific research and cutting-edge AI/ML." And this week, InfoWorld reported:Red Hat has launched Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI), described as a foundation model platform that allows users to more seamlessly develop and deploy generative AI models. Announced May 7 and available now as a developer preview, RHEL AI includes the Granite family of open-source large language models (LLMs) from IBM, InstructLab model alignment tools based on the LAB (Large-Scale Alignment for Chatbots) methodology, and a community-driven approach to model development through the InstructLab project, Red Hat said.

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