There are four major differences Amazon Linux 2 has from its predecessors:
Amazon Linux 2 will offer long-term support.
It is available as a VM image for on-premises development and testing.
It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system and also includes new version of compiler and build tools.
It provides the ability to install additional software packages through Extras mechanism without impacting the underlying LTS stability of the operating system.
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> Amazon Linux 2 will offer long-term support.
> It is available as a VM image for on-premises development and testing.
> It includes systemd service and systems manager as opposed to System V init system and also includes new version of compiler and build tools.
> It provides the ability to install additional software packages through Extras mechanism without impacting the underlying LTS stability of the operating system.
I hope we can use the entire EPEL7 with this new version.
If the quoted package versions are anything to go by, that is not the case.
However, they do have images with other distros also well preconfigured though don't they?
Also, and for many more importantly, it's probably easier to get support from Amazon if you're using their official Linux as opposed to a third party distribution.
[0] I'm pretty sure it's true for CentOS / RHEL, I just don't know for a fact.
I'm off to rewrite/test/fix all ansible and puppet modules so they support FreeBSD. I had hoped AWS was smart enough to stay sober, but no. Too bad, I liked AWS Linux.
Red Hat is not systemd. You'll find it in Ubuntu, Debian, SuSE, Arch, and RHEL/CentOS/Scientific.