Soon after release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.3, Mr Teri Whitaker of Oracle Linux and Virtualization team has announced general availability of Oracle Linux 7.3, a RHEL based enterprise operating system. This announcement is only applicable for x86_64 users.
The Oracle Linux 7.3 is first release of project to include UEK R4, latest stable release of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel(UEK) developed by Oracle. A fresh installation of Oracle Linux 7.3 will result in UEK R4, however, existing users will have to do a manual installation to replace their UEK R3 with UEK R4.
The Oracle Linux 7.3 installation images includes two sets of Kernel. The default Kernel is Oracle Unbreakable Kernel 4. Also, as an alternative, it includes Red Hat Compatible Kernel, Linux Kernel from upstream RHEL project. Though the installation image is shipping UEK R4, the release will continue to support UEK R3 as well.
The Oracle Linux 7.3 is first release of project to include UEK R4, latest stable release of Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel(UEK) developed by Oracle. A fresh installation of Oracle Linux 7.3 will result in UEK R4, however, existing users will have to do a manual installation to replace their UEK R3 with UEK R4.
Oracle Linux maintains user space compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is independent of the kernel version that underlies the operating system. Existing applications in user space will continue to run unmodified on Oracle Linux 7 Update 3 with UEK R4 and no re-certifications are needed for applications already certified with RHEL 7 or Oracle Linux 7.For more details, see release announcement published in projects website.