Amazon Web Services has announced to release updated version of its own Linux every two years, staring with Amazon Linux 2022 (AL2022), which is currently at preview stage.
“Starting with AL2022, a new Amazon Linux major version will be available every two years and each version will be supported for five years. Customers will also be able to take advantage of quarterly updates via minor releases and use the latest software for their applications,” the company said.
Finally, AL2022 provides the ability to lock to a specific version of the Amazon Linux package repository giving customers control over how and when they absorb updates.
Customers use a variety of Linux based distributions on AWS, including Amazon Linux 1 (AL1) and Amazon Linux 2 (AL2). These have become the preferred Linux choice for AWS customers because of no license costs, tight integration with AWS-specific tools and capabilities, immediate access to new AWS innovations, and a single-vendor support experience.
According to AWS, AL2022 combines the benefits of our current Amazon Linux products with a predictable, two year release cycle, so customers can plan for operating system upgrades as part of their product lifecycles. The two year major release cycle provides customers the opportunity to keep their software current while the five year support commitment for each major release gives customers the stability they need to manage long project lifecycles.
AL2022 uses the Fedora project as its upstream to provide customers with a wide variety of the latest software, such as updated language runtimes, as part of quarterly releases. In addition, AL2022 has SELinux enabled and enforced by default.
This enables customers to improve their security posture, reduce the operational overhead that comes with managing custom security policies, and helps comply with common industry standards.
AL2022 is now available in preview in all commercial regions and is provided at no additional charge. Standard Amazon EC2 and AWS charges apply for running Amazon EC2 instances and other services. AL2022 can be launched from AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell, RunInstances or via a AWS CloudFormation template.
