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rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support
rPath Expands Multi Operating System Support with Ubuntu, CentOS Spurs the Evolution of the OS; Assembly and Binding of OS Components to Application Key to Virtualization, Cloud Success RALEIGH, N.C. - November 19, 2008 - rPath today announced support for the Ubuntu and CentOS Linux operating systems as part of rBuilder and the rPath Lifecycle Management Platform. rBuilder is the category-defining build and release management system for creating virtual appliances and application images. The rPath Lifecycle Management Platform extends rBuilder with a comprehensive system for controlling the cost, complexity and risk of deploying, managing and maintaining application images in virtualized and cloud-based environments. The rPath approach assembles and binds application functionality with an operating system, creating a self-contained application image that can be easily deployed, managed and maintained. This approach sets the application free from the constraints and manual configuration of hardware infrastructure, allowing applications to be instantly deployed, while providing IT operations a scalable platform for managing and maintaining images over time. rPath already supports Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise and rPath Linux. With the addition of Ubuntu and CentOS, rPath delivers a broad set of options for deploying and managing applications in traditional, virtualized and cloud environments. "Corporate developers and ISVs creating virtual appliances are likely to have a distribution preference for a variety of reasons. Adding Ubuntu and CentOS, two important distributions within the Linux ecosystem, gives those developers choice and flexibility," said Al Gillen, program vice president, System Software at IDC. "By expanding the list of Linux deployment options, rPath opens up new market opportunities both for itself and for its customers." In virtualized and cloud-based environments, the operating system is split in two. Hardware-based services are handled by the hypervisor, and application-based services are attached to the application image, which becomes a self-contained and fully functioning set of virtual machines. This approach is typically based on just enough operating system - or JeOS - which assembles only the pieces of the operating system and other tooling necessary to support the run-time requirements of a specific application. This makes the application simple to deploy, portable across run-time environments and far more cost-effective to maintain over time. "We're committed to an open and independent approach to the operating system," said Erik Troan, co-founder and CTO of rPath. "We intend to support the operating systems that are critical to virtualization and cloud. This is the best way to provide organizations the portability, business agility, cost control, and other advantages that attracted them to this model in the first place." For more information on rPath, please visit http://www.rpath.com. For additional perspectives, please visit and subscribe to rPath RSS blog feeds at http://blogs.rpath.com/wpmu/. Recent News and Resources News release: rPath Professional Services Bring Trusted Advice to the Cloud; http://www.rpath.com/corp/news-and-events/283-rpath-profe... News release: rPath Puts Adoption Model in the Cloud; http://www.rpath.com/corp/news-and-events/278-11032008 News release: rPath Initiative Aims to Close the Application Deployment Gap; http://www.rpath.com/corp/news-and-events/269-10282008 About rPath rPath is the pioneer and leader in technology for virtualizing software applications and managing the complete lifecycle of virtual appliances and application images. ISVs and enterprises rely on rBuilder and the rPath Lifecycle Management Platform to automate the creation, configuration, conformance, management and maintenance of application images for virtualized and cloud computing environments. By producing application images that are optimized for any hypervisor, rPath frees the application from the underlying hardware, and enables a more efficient, lower cost model for development, maintenance and support and dramatically accelerates application deployments. rPath's end-to-end technology simplifies the entire range of lifecycle management activities for application images, while promoting scalability in response to dynamic demand. rPath is headquartered in Raleigh, NC. Visit www.rpath.com. rPath is a registered trademark of rPath. All other brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. ### (Log in to post comments)
rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support Posted Nov 20, 2008 16:49 UTC (Thu) by kragil (guest, #34373) [Link]
I just wish Suse Studio would accept more alpha testers... rPath is somehow not for me.
rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support Posted Nov 20, 2008 17:51 UTC (Thu) by dberkholz (guest, #23346) [Link]
JeOS -- Gentoo done right. =)
rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support Posted Nov 21, 2008 0:12 UTC (Fri) by Burgundavia (subscriber, #25172) [Link]
I really love what rPath has been doing, but the custom distro and package management has always scared me away. Hopefully this will attract more people like me.
rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support Posted Nov 21, 2008 1:43 UTC (Fri) by jspaleta (subscriber, #50639) [Link]
Scared you away as an individual user? Maybe what rPath is doing is actually a better fit for a different class of user. Dedicated, virtualized application deployments for specialized and controlled business needs is one obvious example. That's rpath's core market as a business. The virtual appliance building framework which is the focuse of this press release really isn't end-user hotness. rpath's previous creation, conary , is more directly useful for end users. You want a taste of that, try foresight linux and then get involved with that community as a developer or packager if you want to get familiar with rpath's developer oriented tech.
But more generally I think that the technologies rpath has put together make a really good fit for more than "virtual" appliances, they might make a lot of sense for actual appliances.. for dedicated hardware targets with prescribed usage scenarios..like computing appliances, personal gadgets, point of sell devices of all sorts, and or even perhaps netbooks. In the oncoming rush to market by several vendors to find the discount price point.. if netbooks end up being marketed more like appliances... more like cellphones...than general purpose computers... the way rpath's tech lets you put a distribution image together and roll updates for it might be appealing to netbook oems over the more traditional linux distribution models.
-jef
rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support Posted Nov 21, 2008 3:02 UTC (Fri) by Burgundavia (subscriber, #25172) [Link]
No, scared me away as somebody who looked at it to run in a small business. Basically, I couldn't find any good information about security, updates, proactive hardening, etc.
rPath Linux update and security information Posted Nov 21, 2008 15:19 UTC (Fri) by michaelkjohnson (subscriber, #41438) [Link] No, scared me away as somebody who looked at it to run in a small business. Basically, I couldn't find any good information about security, updates, proactive hardening, etc. I'm sorry that this information was hard to find; it hasn't been our intention to make it so. Our rPath Linux page describes how to find information about maintenance and security updates. Linux Weekly News itself does include rPath's advisories in its security update summaries, and rPath maintains mailing lists dedicated to only security-related updates and for all updates, both general maintenance and security-related for the convenience of our users. We also summarize changes with links to our advisories on a per-product basis; for example rPath Linux 2 Changes, and all of our advisories carry a permanent URL providing the text of the advisory. "Proactive hardening" can mean multiple things. rPath Linux 2 has been built using --fstack-protector and FORTIFY_SOURCE=2. It does not include SELinux. I'd be glad to answer further more specific questions. Returning to the topic of the post to which these comments are attached, there is mailing list that promulgates CentOS advisories as they are incorporated into the rBuilder repository which contains the packages for CentOS 5 Delivered by rPath.
rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support Posted Nov 23, 2008 17:59 UTC (Sun) by tuna (guest, #44480) [Link]
They mention CentOS, but not Redhat. What could be the reason for not supporting RHEL when supporting CentOS?
rPath Spurs Operating System Evolution with Ubuntu, CentOS Support Posted Nov 24, 2008 14:58 UTC (Mon) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link]
licensing costs.
rPath creates system images for you. if they created RHEL images they would need to deal with the licensing issues, by just doing CentOS they don't.
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