A new group has formed this week known as the Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA) and it's taking direct aim at IBM's Red Hat business unit.

OpenELA was formed by a group of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) software clone vendors including CIQ, Oracle and SUSE. The clones are not happy and they're now joining forces to do something about their dissatisfaction.

For the last several months, there has been significant disruption in the Linux open source software world, with enterprise Linux vendor Red Hat changing some of its terms, making it somewhat more difficult for others to simply clone and replicate RHEL. With the new OpenELA organization, the goal is for the clone vendors to come together in common cause to help each other in various ways to build RHEL clones.

"Today’s announcement is part of our commitment to help make Linux the best server operating system for everyone, freely available to all, with high-quality, low-cost support provided to those who need it, and to do this as transparently and openly as we always have while minimizing fragmentation," Wim Coekaerts, head of Oracle Linux development, told SDxCentral.

Oracle has been building its Oracle Linux software, largely based on the open source code from RHEL, since 2006.

SUSE hasn't been building clones for nearly as long; in fact, SUSE only just launched its Liberty Linux in 2023 in response to Red Hat's licensing drama. For the last two decades, SUSE has largely been focused on developing its own distribution to rival that of Red Hat. SUSE Liberty Linux is a different effort, designed to bring another supported Linux to enterprise users that is compatible with RHEL.

SUSE isn't abandoning its roots either, as helping to launch OpenELA is also about building a RHEL-based distribution.

"We remain fully committed to investing in our enterprise Linux solutions such as SLE [SUSE Linux Enterprise], Liberty and openSUSE," Thomas Di Giacomo, chief technology and product officer at SUSE, told SDxCentral. "We’ve also received very positive feedback from partners, customers and community on OpenELA and SUSE's know-how for enterprise Linux and open-source contributions."

As to why SUSE is helping to create the OpenELA organization, Di Giacomo emphasized that collaboration is critical to innovation.

"By working with Oracle and CIQ, and opening this up to the broader open-source community, we will be able to work with a diverse group of global contributors from around the world to help ensure that organizations have a choice when it comes to choosing the right Linux distribution," he said.

CIQ is the lead organization behind the Rocky Linux distribution, which has been one of the leading RHEL clones in recent years.

According to Greg Kurtzer, founder of Rocky Linux and CEO of CIQ, the founding members of OpenELA share a common goal of providing a secure, transparent and reliable enterprise Linux source that is globally available to all as a buildable base.

"Having that reliable source simplifies the build process in the Rocky Linux community, as well as every other enterprise Linux build," Kurtzer told SDxCentral. "It also addresses concerns regarding the recent drama and perceived instability within the enterprise Linux ecosystem."

It's still early for OpenELA, though the founding members all share a similar goal of building stability and confidence in an enterprise Linux distribution that is largely compatible with RHEL. The actual governance and contribution model for the organization has not yet been determined but it is in process.

"OpenELA is in progress of becoming a Delaware 501(c)(6) U.S. nonprofit entity and will be subject to the board of directors comprising both corporate and community members," Kurtzer said. "The initial board of directors will include equal representation from our founding entities (CIQ, Oracle and SUSE). The details will be worked out as we move forward."