Rocky Linux was founded by one of the original creators of CentOS after that project moved upstream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and its name honors a late CentOS co-founder. The distribution's stated aim is faithful, bug-for-bug compatibility with each corresponding RHEL release, giving administrators a drop-in production platform without subscription fees. It is governed through the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, structured to keep control with the community. Technically it is classic enterprise Linux: RPM packages with DNF, SELinux enforced, a conservative kernel, roughly a decade of support per major release, and images for bare metal, clouds, and containers. Rocky is common in web hosting, research computing, and enterprises standardizing on the RHEL ecosystem without the licensing. Desktop use is possible but clearly secondary. Spinning it up in an OpenFactory browser VM is a convenient way to check tooling and package behavior before committing servers.
Select a version of Rocky Linux to try online:
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| 9.5: | |
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Need Rocky Linux for more than a quick browser preview?
The buttons above launch an ephemeral browser VM, perfect for kicking the tires. Paid plans unlock the things you'd actually use it for:
- ✓Persistent VMs you can SSH into and customize
- ✓Snapshots, your own packages, a downloadable ISO
- ✓Fleet deployment to your own machines (on-prem or cloud)