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# In a Blow to IBM, SUSE is Forking Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/suse-rhel-fork/
- Published: 2023-07-11T11:27:39.000Z
- Updated: 2023-07-11T11:28:44.000Z
- Description: Is SUSE initiating more competition against RHEL? Find out what's cooking.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: Development Updates, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15

Fresh on the heels of Red Hat's source code lockout, SUSE has decided to undertake something entirely novel.

Over the coming years, they **plan to invest over $10 million into an RHEL-compatible distro** free of restrictions.

If you did not get the memo, here's what you missed (to get up to speed):

[Red Hat’s Source Code Lockout Spells Disaster for CentOS Alternatives: Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux in Trouble?Red Hat’s new move means that RHEL-source code is only accessible to users with subscriptions. What do you think about this?![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/08/android-chrome-192x192.png)It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/06/redhat-limited-centos-stream.png)](https://itsfoss.com/red-hat-restricts-source-code/)

Considering now you know about Red Hat's recent move, let's see what SUSE has planned for such an undertaking.

**What's Happening:** Earlier today, SUSE, the company behind [SUSE Linux](https://www.suse.com/products/server/?ref=itsfoss.com), made an announcement that they would be forking publicly available Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and **developing/maintaining an [RHEL-compatible distro](https://itsfoss.com/rhel-based-server-distributions/)** that would be **available without any restrictions**.

Over the coming years, they plan to invest over $10 million into this project while **working with the open-source community** to develop a long-term, reliable alternative to RHEL and CentOS.

On this, the **CEO of SUSE**, *Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen*, had this to add:

> For decades, collaboration and shared success have been the building blocks of our open source community. We have a responsibility to defend these values.   
>  
> This investment will preserve the flow of innovation for years to come and ensures that customers and community alike are not subjected to vendor lock-in and have genuine choice tomorrow as well as today.

Yep, the last part looks like a direct jab at Red Hat. 🤭

They have already started the collaboration part by partnering with [CIQ](https://ciq.com/?ref=itsfoss.com), the folks behind [Rocky Linux](https://rockylinux.org/?ref=itsfoss.com).

The CEO of CIQ, and **founder of Rocky Linux**, *Gregory Kurtzer* mentioned:

> CIQ is bringing stability to our partners, customers, and community, by building a broad coalition of like-minded companies, organizations, and individuals. SUSE has embodied the core principles and spirit of open source; CIQ is thrilled to collaborate with SUSE on advancing an open enterprise Linux standard.

But, they are **not limiting the collaboration to that**. They have also **invited the open-source community** to actively contribute to developing this upcoming RHEL-compatible distribution.

**When to expect:** Well, in the coming years would be my best guess as this is a massive undertaking that **will need a significant investment** of time and resources.

Though, SUSE mentions one more thing that caught my eye. They have said that any future **expectations/plans are subject to change** due to essential factors such as economic downturns, pricing pressures, the possibility of undetected software issues, and more.

If I were you, I would chalk this up to your run-of-the-mill disclaimer notice on many corporate press releases.

You may dive into the [announcement blog](https://www.suse.com/news/SUSE-Preserves-Choice-in-Enterprise-Linux/?ref=itsfoss.com) to learn more about this project.

SUSE has taken us all by surprise with this move; I really hope this project benefits the overall Linux ecosystem and can act as a fine example of how such large-scale open-source projects are to be executed.

*💬 Well, this was a surprise move from SUSE; What do you think of this?*