Linux is so much more than nerdy guys tinkering in their mom's basement. While those people exist, major companies such as Google and Intel contribute to the project too. Why? Linux is essential for servers and other business cases too.
Red Hat is one of the most successful Linux-focused companies, and for good reason; their enterprise-class distro, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), is rock solid, and more importantly, its support is legendary. Today, Red Hat announces the latest version -- RHEL 7.1.
"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 offers improved development and deployment tools, enhanced interoperability and manageability, and additional security and performance features. As with all releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, these enhancements are delivered over a stable, secure, 10-year lifecycle backed by Red Hat’s award-winning global support", says Red Hat.
Jim Totton, VP, Red Hat explains, "the enhancements to the world's leading enterprise Linux platform offered by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1, as well as the new offerings based on the update, deliver a flexible, reliable, secure and performant [sic] platform that works across nearly every industry use case, from container adoption and rapid application development to time-sensitive trading applications and systems based on IBM Power Systems architecture".
A notable addition to RHEL 7.1 is the return of the Thunderbird email client. Apparently, it was pulled from RHEL 7, causing an issue for users upgrading from version 6. Luckily, Red Hat listens to customers, and now all is right in the world.
Also updated is OpenJDK which sees an update from version 7 to 8. Libreoffice, the venerable office suite gets an update too.
You can read more about what is new in RHEL 7.1 here.
Will your company upgrade right away? Tell me in the comments.