Rocky Linux (rocky) End of Life
Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation
Support policy
Rocky Linux mirrors the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle: about five years of active support followed by security-only maintenance to ten years from release. Unlike RHEL there is no paid extension beyond that date, and minor versions are not supported individually.
Notes
Rocky Linux's life cycle matches RHEL's dates exactly: roughly five years of active support, with security maintenance to ten years from release. Both end dates line up with RHEL's Full Support and Maintenance Support dates.
The decisive difference is that there is no paid extension. RHEL 8 can be extended to 2033 with the ELS add-on; Rocky Linux 8 simply ends on 31 May 2029. For systems expected to run beyond ten years, that four-year gap matters.
The second difference is that you cannot pin a minor version. RHEL offers EUS (Extended Update Support) to stay on a specific minor release while still receiving updates; Rocky Linux has no equivalent. When a new minor version ships, you have to follow it. If your application qualification is tied to specific minor versions, this translates directly into operational cost.
Dates here come from the "Current Supported Releases" table on the official wiki, which also lists the current minor version for each release.
Sources
Last verified: 2026-08-04