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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Rocky Linux ensures consistent settings and extended maintenance with an alignment to RHEL, providing high reliability for critical systems.
Rocky Linux is highly stable, free, and open-source, with strong community support and compatibility with RHEL.
Rocky Linux has positively impacted organizations by significantly reducing operating costs, allowing funds to be allocated to other areas such as middleware and monitoring applications.
Rocky Linux optimizes for low-latency live streaming and content packaging workflows, with extensive support for an optimized kernel, networking, security, and driver assistance.
Rocky Linux facilitates migration from CentOS, allowing seamless transitions without data loss or the need to rebuild virtual machines from scratch.

CONS

If support is not paid for, users may need to manage certain aspects and rely on the community for assistance.
Rocky Linux needs to clarify its identity and target audience.
Windows integration, particularly Active Directory, requires additional effort.
Package versions can be older compared to distributions like Ubuntu.
Customer support is not fully developed and is not very responsive.
 

Rocky Linux Pros review quotes

Dominique Locksley - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 19, 2024
It's very simple to work with, easy to learn, and know where things are.
Basil Jiji - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 7, 2025
When we moved from Red Hat to Rocky Linux, we saved around 70% of the cost which was used for subscriptions, and that money is now used for other things such as middleware applications and monitoring applications including DataDog and Dynatrace.
JW
Sep 22, 2023
It helps us keep our workstations in sync and ensures consistent settings across most of our machines.
Learn what your peers think about Rocky Linux. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.
RD
Sep 22, 2025
In my opinion, the best features Rocky Linux offers are stability, compatibility, and community support, all of which I think are extremely necessary and essential for the distribution, and I find that all three pillars are very supported by Rocky Linux.
reviewer2758479 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 18, 2025
Rocky Linux provides us with extended maintenance, security patches, and support lifecycle aligned with RHEL, making it highly reliable for critical systems.
Bakang Khunou - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 13, 2025
Rocky Linux has positively impacted my organization by making things simpler, especially with not having to escalate privileges all the time using sudo as compared to Ubuntu flavors.
reviewer2758263 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2025
Rocky Linux has been a major driver for our cloud migration strategy and has proven to be one of the most cost-effective solutions for us, allowing us to save huge revenue while maintaining fantastic consistency with updates.
reviewer2764758 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 11, 2025
Rocky Linux is best for someone who wants good scalability, enterprise-grade stability, substantial community engagement, compatibility with RHEL, and strong security.
DILIP BHARADWAJ - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2025
Rocky Linux performs excellently in low-latency live streaming and content packaging workflows, as we use it for optimizing compatibility with the streaming platforms, utilizing an optimized kernel for networking, tuning profiles, IRQ affinity, security, reliability, and hardware and driver support.
reviewer2772054 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 28, 2025
Rocky Linux has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to migrate away from CentOS 7 as a result of the end-of-life for that operating system and then the end of CentOS 8, so we were able to move away from it without losing data and without having to rebuild VMs from scratch.
 

Rocky Linux Cons review quotes

Dominique Locksley - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 19, 2024
The solution's audio integration for virtual machines could be improved.
Basil Jiji - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 7, 2025
To improve Rocky Linux, providing releases for each package, firmware, and kernel more quickly would be beneficial.
JW
Sep 22, 2023
One of the potential issues is that if you don't pay for support, you may need to manage certain aspects on your own and rely on the community for assistance.
Learn what your peers think about Rocky Linux. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
872,846 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2758479 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 18, 2025
I see some performance-related issues, but we are still checking on that, and we don't know if it is related to the OS or the resource; that is something still to be checked from our end.
Bakang Khunou - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 13, 2025
In terms of scalability, you need to have automation tools.
reviewer2758263 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2025
The only drawback we have seen is that even though there are timely deliveries of security patches and vulnerability fixes, the Rocky Linux Security Advisor or RLSA updates via the DNF utilities are broken or delayed.
reviewer2764758 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 11, 2025
Currently, the customer support for Rocky Linux is not fully developed and is in a growing stage; the customer support is also not very responsive.
DILIP BHARADWAJ - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 8, 2025
Rocky Linux could be improved with API-based tools that would help our streaming environment be monitored using DataMiner.
Massimiliano Adamo - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 2, 2025
Rocky Linux could be improved by having more integration with Kubernetes.
KRISTOF Laenen - PeerSpot reviewer
May 30, 2025
To be honest, Rocky Linux is almost similar to each Linux distribution, so I have no specific reason why it should offer me its features.