Learn how to – RHEL 8 vs RHEL 9 – Comparison Table.
RedHat, one of the technological giants in our generation known for various OpenSource and Enterprise Software products recently displayed their monumental resilience, consistency and continuity by ushering the world into their new enterprise Linux distribution which we all know best as RHEL (RedHat Enterprise Linux).
Following its unveiling, the way has been paved for RedHat Enterprise Linux 9 to participate in the noble undertaking of serving the world, providing a safe and comfortable home for the various applications being developed as well as setting the pace for technology to move forward. All that said, there is one lingering question that prompted the penning of this article. And it is “How RHEL 9 compares to the previous version of RHEL 8“. What is it that makes RHEL 9 different from RHEL 8?
Having set the pace for the agenda of the day, we will be placing RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 side by side by comparing some of the salient features of interest so that we can have what really distinguishes the two of them. The improvements that have been made, new changes that have been introduced as well as what to expect as you launch this new version. Here we go
| Feature | RHEL 9 | RHEL 8 |
| Date of Release | 17th May 2022 | 7th May 2019 |
| Code Name | Plow | Ootpa |
| Kernel | Distributed with the kernel version 5.14 | Distributed with the kernel version 4.18 |
| Package Management | DNF, YUM | DNF, YUM |
| Supported architectures | AMD and Intel 64-bit architectures (x86-64-v2) The 64-bit ARM architecture (ARMv8.0-A) IBM Power Systems, Little Endian (POWER9) 64-bit IBM Z (z14) |
AMD and Intel 64-bit architectures The 64-bit ARM architecture IBM Power Systems, Little Endian IBM Z |
| Repositories | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 is distributed through two main repositories
BaseOS |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is distributed through two main repositories
BaseOS |
| Initial Setup | Starting with RHEL 9, the initial setup screens have been disabled by default to improve user experience. | RHEL users have to configure initial setups (Licensing, System (Subscription manager), and User Settings) prior to gnome-initial-setup and login screens. |
| SELinux | With this release, support for disabling SELinux through the SELINUX=disabled option in the /etc/selinux/config file has been removed from the kernel. | Support for disabling SELinux through the SELINUX=disabled option in the /etc/selinux/config is supported. |
| Network Scripts | RHEL 9 does not contain the network-scripts package. To configure network connections in RHEL 9, use NetworkManager. | network-scripts package was still available but deprecated in RHEL 8. |
| Dynamic Programming Languages Versions | Node.js 16 Perl 5.32 PHP 8.0 Python 3.9 Ruby 3.0 |
Node.js 16 Perl 5.26 PHP 7.2 Python 3.6 Ruby 2.5 Python 2.7 is available in the python2 package (will have a shorter life cycle) |
| Packet filtering | nftables is the default network packet filtering framework and the ipset and iptables-nft packages have been deprecated. | nftables replaces iptables as the default network packet filtering framework |
| File systems | XFS is the default file system and now supports bigtime and inobtcount features. Additionally, the exFAT filesystem is now supported in RHEL 9. | XFS is the default file system. The Btrfs file system is removed in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. |
| Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO) | The python-based VDO Management software is no longer available in RHEL 9. Instead of this software, use the LVM-VDO implementation for managing VDO volumes. | VDO is available on all of the architectures supported by RHEL 8. |
| Default Container Runtime | crun | runc and Docker is not included in RHEL 8.0. |
Last Launch
As the new crop of developers, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders and inspiring personalities rise to add their contributions to our planet, we cannot fail to recognise the amazing work that RedHat and the entire OpenSource community has done to support them.
It is a time when dreams are relatively easier to achieve and a lot of paths to success are available for our sons and daughters to take advantage of to success, make our earth better and to create opportunities for the coming generations as well. We applaud you all and keep appreciating the impeccable products you continue to release to make the globe smile.
We are thankful for your ever awesome support, your readership and the inspiration you continue to evoke in our spirits. Thank you beautiful people.
References/Resources:
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