Second-Generation Amazon Linux OS Sees Daylight

Amazon Web Services (AWS), on Wednesday, released the next version of its Linux server operating systems.
A preliminary version, build 2017.12 of Amazon Linux 2, is now available in all public AWS regions. AWS called this release a “candidate” in their announcement, which means that the final build is yet to come.
According to AWS, Amazon Linux OS “provides a high-performance, stable, secure execution environment for cloud or enterprise applications.” Amazon Linux 2 will offer five years of support from AWS. This includes security patches and platform updates, which is not the case with the first release.
Amazon Linux 2 is also available on-premises, in a virtual machine image. This is a significant change from its predecessor. This option is compatible with Oracle VM VirtualBox, Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware. Amazon Linux 2 can also be downloaded as a Docker container image (AMI) or as an Amazon Machine Image.
AWS has also released Amazon Linux 2 and introduced “Amazon Linux Extras”, a feature that allows users to install new versions of common applications, including Python, Ansible. PostgreSQL. MariaDB. Redis. This will allow users to install new versions without causing conflict with the underlying OS. This FAQ explains AS AWS in detail:
Extras introduces the concept of topics for selecting software bundles. Each topic contains all necessary dependencies for the software to function on Amazon Linux 2. Rust, for example, is an Extras topic on the curated Amazon list. It contains the runtimes and toolchain for Rust, the system programming language. This topic contains the cmake Rust build system, cargo – the rust packages manager, and the LLVM based Rust compiler toolchain. Each topic’s packages are installed using the well-known yum process.
More information about Amazon Linux 2 can be found here. The Wednesday release is still a preliminary build. Therefore, the final Amazon Linux 2 version might include some changes that have yet to be announced.
AWS stated that the last update for the original Amazon Linux product, build 2017.09, was released in October. AWS will continue to release security updates for build 2017.09 for a further two years.