14 DAY TRIAL // The Linux distribution built by Fermilab and numerous universities from around the world, Scientific Linux, has finally reached the coveted 7.0 stable release. Quite a few development versions have been made available until now, but the devs have managed to get everything sorted out and ready for shipping.
Scientific Linux is a very famous operating system used in many scientific circles (hence the name) and it's present in lots of universities and laboratories around the world. CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), which is the organization that governs the Large Hadron Collider project, is just one of those using this distro, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in US is another.
As you can imagine, very few things change from one version to another in terms of interface, but numerous features are added and implemented. Each new Scientific Linux version gets multiple package updates, but it also remains quite stable.
What is new in Scientific Linux 7.0
Scientific Linux 7.0 is based on Red Hat Enterprise and many of the modifications and package updates come from upstream. The same is true for this release as well, but there is also a problem that is still bugging the system. Normally, it's not an issue for RHEL, but it's something that has to do with Scientific Linux and its kernel. It's an UEFI issue. Users can install the system on PCs with UEFI, but they have to take some extra steps.
"Fermilab's intention is to continue the development and support of Scientific Linux and refine its focus as an operating system for scientific computing. Today we are announcing the release of Scientific Linux 7."
"Booting SL7 with Secure Boot enabled works but requires a manual step. This is because the 'shim' has not been signed by the UEFI CA. The kernels in sl7-security have not yet been built with the SL7 Secure Boot Certificate and may not function in secure boot environments," reads the official announcement.
The developers have also explained that it's not possible to upgrade from Scientific Linux 6.x to Scientific Linux 7.0. There are no tools to perform such an upgrade. Even if the users force the upgrade from one version of the operating system to another, it's very likely that the resulting build will be unusable.
The release notes for the distribution contain more details about the updated packages. You can download Scientific Linux 7.0 from Softpedia and install it. A Live CD version is expected to land in a few weeks.