Now available: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Beta

Today, we're excited to invite you to beta-test Red Hat Enterprise Linux  (RHEL) 10, the next major version of the enterprise operating system. With this newest release, we’re delivering a modern Linux experience on a platform that can support enduring operational technologies and emerging workloads alike.

This beta strengthens a commitment we made when we released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 in 2019: to release a new major edition every three years and offer more lifecycle predictability for our customers. RHEL 10, due to reach general availability in mid-2025, will be our third major release on that new schedule.

Try RHEL 10 Beta in Insights image builder

Beta test an OS? Really?

Yeah, really. At first glance, a major operating system (OS) update seems like an odd candidate for beta testing. Your OS touches everything, from servers in the datacenter to smart applications running at the device edge. You can’t wall it off for testing.

But beta testing has benefits for you (the users) and us (the vendor). It gives you a chance to try new features several months early and prepare for potential changes the new OS will bring to your existing hardware operating environment. The bugs beta testers find help us deliver the best possible product at general availability.

We also see beta testing as an important expression of the open source philosophy. Sharing an early version is a transparent act, and it allows the kind of vendor-customer cooperation that’s especially powerful in open source. RHEL 10’s evolution began with the Fedora community, moved through CentOS Stream, and is now in your hands. That’s something that only happens with open source.

Delivering the latest in Linux

A lot has changed in the world of Linux since we released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 in 2022. Minor releases have incorporated much of what’s new, but RHEL 10 goes further. Built on Kernel 6.11.0, it updates libraries such as OpenSSH, SELinux and Podman and builds new capabilities on top of those components.

Updating to Podman 5.0 is just one of the developer-friendly improvements in RHEL 10. We’ve updated a range of dev tools and languages, incorporating more current versions of GCC, Java, Rust and Go tools. Check out the release notes for more details.

5 reasons to choose Podman in 2025

Evolving an all-purpose platform

There are lots of modern Linux distributions that offer current versions of base-layer components. RHEL is something more: a foundation for our customers’ most ambitious innovations. There are major improvements to this edition that distinguish RHEL from any other Linux flavor.

Introducing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Lightspeed

RHEL 10 marks the debut of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Lightspeed, a generative AI (gen AI) tool purpose-built to help experts and novices build, deploy and manage RHEL simply and efficiently.

We’re building decades of expertise into RHEL Lightspeed to give you recommendations and guidance to help you make better tuning and troubleshooting decisions. It can also help you plan and protect your IT infrastructure with a proactive life cycle and security information that’s offered at the moment you need it. RHEL Lightspeed also tailors release notes for your organization and package recommendations for your teams, bringing a new level of personalization to the RHEL experience.  And RHEL Lightspeed replaces complex commands with plain language, lowering barriers for less experienced users.

RHEL 10 Beta through Red Hat Insights image builder

Creating golden OS images is complex work—it takes knowledge, time, and effort to meet the needs of the organization and the requirements of disparate hybrid cloud environments. The RHEL 10 Beta is the first beta release that we're offering to our customers through Insights image builder, our easy-to-use service that provides customized, up-to-date golden images.

Insights image builder offers many customizations which include partitioning, including packages from external repositories and first boot scripts. On top of these features, Insights image builder will allow you to test-drive RHEL 10 beta on your favorite public cloud.

Improving image mode

Image mode brings the power of RHEL to more teams and users. With it, DevOps teams can plug RHEL into their continuous integration/continuous delivery and GitOps workflows more easily. Security teams can more readily apply container security tools, from scanning and validation to cryptography and attestation to the base elements of the operating system.

The beta is just the beginning

Between now and general availability, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to learn more from and with our experts about RHEL 10. Watch for more blog posts here, a video series on the Red Hat YouTube channel, and interactive labs at redhat.com.

If you’re ready to get your hands on the RHEL 10 Beta, you don’t have to wait for any of that. Try it in Insights image builder or download it now to start testing. Or check out the release notes and product documentation.