When Red Hat, CentOS's Linux parent company, announced it was "shifting focus from CentOS Linux, the rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), to CentOS Stream, which tracks just ahead of a current RHEL release," many CentOS users were miserable. In response, developers started two major CentOS forks: AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux. AlmaLinux already has support from its sponsoring company CloudLinux and now Rocky Linux does too from its parent business CIQ. 

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Both CentOS Linux forks are completely free for use and are community-based. But, if you need help running either one, it's available for a price. 

Started by CentOS co-founder and Rocky Linux founder Gregory Kurtzer, CIQ is now officially offering support services for Rocky Linux. According to Kurtzer, CIQ will be a one-stop resource for Rocky Linux users. It delivers enterprise support and services for businesses and organizations ranging from the smallest of businesses to enterprise-scale companies.

"At its core, CIQ wants to redefine how customer service is done in this industry," said Brim Leal, CIQ's CMO in a statement. "So many companies say that, but we actually show it in two ways. First, we're giving Rocky Linux users what they want: simplified, affordable support. We are helping small independent users just as much as we support big enterprises."

Leal added, "We helped create Rocky Linux as an open-source and independent operating system, and we're going to keep it that way. Second, our technicians are Rocky Linux programmers and engineers -it's what they do every single day. So they can drill down and enthusiastically address any customer support question our clients might have because Rocky Linux is their passion too." 

Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) released Rocky Linux 8.4 in July. It is a clone of the most recent Red Hat release, RHEL 8.4. It's available on the x86_64 and ARM64 (aarch64) architectures. It offers the same features and functionality. 

CIQ is also offering support for the company's other open-source programs. These are Warewulf, its cluster management platform, and Singularity, its community-driven container platform. The latter is designed for high-performance computing, AI/ML, and performance-critical batch processing.

Related Stories:

• CloudLinux offers CentOS 8 users a support lifeline
• CentOS replacement Rocky Linux 8.4 arrives, and proves instantly popular
• Goodbye CentOS, hello Rocky Linux