The Oracle Linux team is pleased to announce the general availability of Oracle Linux 9.6 for 64-bit Intel and AMD (x86_64) and 64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms. This release includes the following kernel options:

Built for distributed and multicloud computing environments, Oracle Linux is highly secure and provides simplified management and optimized performance for demanding workloads at cloud scale. It delivers 100% application binary compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, helping to ensure applications run without disruption. Oracle Linux 9.6 maintains this compatibility with the corresponding Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6 release and delivers on Oracle’s commitment to keeping Linux open and free for everyone. As a founding member of the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA), Oracle continues to contribute, maintain, and support Enterprise Linux source code.

Oracle Linux sources, binaries, ISOs, and errata are freely available and easily accessible from the Oracle Linux yum server, without restrictions.

What’s New in Oracle Linux 9.6

The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8 (UEK 8)—the latest release of Oracle’s purpose-built Oracle Linux kernel—is included as the default kernel in Oracle Linux 9.6 ISO installations. UEK 8 delivers advancements in memory management, enhanced file system support, networking optimizations, and platform-specific improvements. Based on the latest upstream long-term stable kernel, UEK 8 features a wide range of enhancements from Oracle and the upstream Linux community.

Oracle Linux 9.6 also delivers new capabilities and enhancements spanning security, networking, container technologies, and the developer experience. It introduces a new Keylime policy management tool that integrates all management tasks for Keylime runtime and measured boot policies, helping to optimize the performance of policy generation. Additionally, Oracle Linux 9.6 brings performance improvements to certain cryptographic operations in the Nettle library, along with the introduction of additional cryptographic primitives, such as RSA-OAEP and SHAKE-128, for enhanced encryption and hashing capabilities. The SCAP Security Guide has been updated to align STIG profiles with the latest DISA policies, including synchronization of the Oracle Linux 9 STIG profile with the latest official DISA Oracle Linux 9 STIG.

With the Oracle Linux 9.6 release, NetworkManager introduces support for Forward Error Correction, which helps improve performance and reliability by reducing redundant data transmission and lowering network latency. Developer tooling in this release features an updated Maven module stream, which now enables Maven to run with OpenJDK 21, alongside updates to popular development tools including LLVM, Rust, Go, and Valgrind. In addition, container capabilities are further improved with updates to Podman, Buildah, Skopeo, crun, and runc through the Container Tools RPM meta-package.

For complete and detailed information on all the features, enhancements, and changes introduced in this release, please refer to the Oracle Linux 9.6 Release Notes.

Upgrading to the latest Oracle Linux releases

Using the Leapp utility, systems running Oracle Linux 7 can be upgraded to Oracle Linux 8, and those running Oracle Linux 8 can be upgraded to the Oracle Linux 9.6 release. For step-by-step instructions on upgrading your system, review the following documentation for Oracle Linux 8 and Oracle Linux 9.

Oracle Linux 9 systems on a previous update level can be upgraded to Oracle Linux 9.6 by running the sudo dnf update command.

Hardware certification

Servers already certified for an earlier release of Oracle Linux 9 with UEK 8 do not need to be recertified for this update. Servers certified for Oracle Linux with UEK are published on the Hardware Certification List (HCL).

For independent hardware vendors (IHVs) that would like to be part of the Hardware Certification Program, please contact us at hcl-info_ww@oracle.com.

ISV ecosystem

A list of independent software vendors (ISVs) in the Oracle Linux ecosystem that have certified their software to run on Oracle Linux and Oracle Virtualization can be found in the Oracle Linux ISV Catalog. Applications certified on Oracle Linux run wherever Oracle Linux runs—on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and other cloud and on-premises environments.

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Resources

For more information, see the following Oracle Linux resources:

Documentation and training

GitHub

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