New distribution derivative expands Enterprise Linux ecosystem

Fresh off the heels of DebConf24 on July 28 in South Korea, a new open-source community project, eLxr, has emerged. It’s a Debian derivative with intelligent edge capabilities designed to simplify and improve edge-to-cloud deployment strategies.

Edge computing distributions provide a framework that brings enterprise applications closer to data sources, such as IoT devices or local edge servers. The eLxr project has launched its first Debian derivative, inheriting Debian’s intelligent edge capabilities. The community plans to extend them to streamline the approach to edge-to-cloud deployment.

As an enterprise-class, open-source Linux distribution, eLxr addresses the unique challenges of near-edge networks and workloads. According to eLxr.org, this approach strengthens the eLxr distribution and enhances Debian by expanding the feature set and improving overall quality.

Community Focus, Business Support

The eLxr project was first launched in June as a community initiative to expand access to cutting-edge technologies for both enthusiasts and enterprise users looking for a next-generation solution that scales from the edge to the cloud based on Debian Linux. The community’s mission is focused on the availability, innovation, and integrity of open source software from a public Linux distribution.

According to Mark Asselstine, Chief Technology Officer at Wind River and eLxr, the latest version, Aria, is based on Debian 12 Bookworm. It follows the Debian release path and adds its own versioning, with the first release being eLxr 12.6.1.0 — Aria.

Custom-embedded Linux OS Builder Wind River announced its commitment Tuesday, taking the eLxr community edition to the next level. It introduced eLxr Pro, a commercial enterprise Linux offering to meet the unique needs of cloud-to-edge deployments. The recently launched distribution of the open-source eLxr project benefits from long-term commercial support and services provided by eLxr Pro.

Asselstine told LinuxInsider that eLxr was and always will be a community project. It uses an upstream-first methodology and plans to consistently contribute to Debian and Linux Foundation projects.

Under the hood of the Enterprise

Wind River is a founding member of the eLxr community. The company contributed to the initial release of eLxr. Other supporters include AWS, Capgemini, Intel, SAIC, and Supermicro.

Wind River has developed a new commercial version of its enterprise Linux operating system designed to address the unique needs of edge-to-cloud deployments with an emphasis on AI and mission-critical workloads.

The project enables organizations struggling with high-performance edge and enterprise needs to meet stringent performance and operational requirements for a wide range of markets and emerging use cases. These include autonomous vehicles, aerospace and defense, energy, finance, healthcare, industrial automation, smart cities, and telecommunications.

It supports x86_64-based hardware (optimized for UEFI 64 platforms), and eLxr also plans to include others such as Arm64 and Arm System Ready.

Additionally, eLxr Pro solves the challenges of optimizing and deploying near- and far-edge applications to process data closer to where it is generated. It is designed for workloads that include remote automatic updates, containerized applications, orchestration, inference-AI, machine learning, and autonomous operations.

Building on Embedded Linux Use Cases

Over the past decade, build-from-source solutions like Yocto Project and Buildroot have gained recognition for enabling various use cases at the intelligent edge. These experiences led to the creation of eLxr.

Traditional methods of building embedded Linux devices offer extensive customization and the ability to generate a software development kit (SDK), providing a cross-programming toolchain. This has allowed developers to maximize performance on resource-constrained devices while offloading compilation tasks to more powerful machines.

The growing connectivity needs of edge deployments have included over-the-air (OTA) updates and new paradigms such as data aggregation, edge computing, predictive maintenance, and various machine learning capabilities. Such complexities impose significant burdens—the need to monitor CVEs and bugs, use additional SBOMs and varying update cadences, and many other challenges.

These issues have created a need for a different architectural approach for both near-edge devices and servers. This requires the use of multiple distributions, the creation of a heterogeneous landscape of operating environments, and increases complexity and cost.

This led to eLxr being built as a Debian derivative, equipped with modern tools for easier maintenance, while combining traditional installers with a new set of bespoke distribution tools that allow a single distribution to better support edge and server deployments.

Combined with a unified technology stack, this initiative offers a strategic advantage to enterprises looking to optimize their edge deployments, create a seamless operating environment across devices, and set the stage for future innovation in edge-to-cloud deployments. Existing enterprise solutions are moving slower than the speed users need to innovate and rapidly adopt new technologies.

Debian connection

The eLxr project chose Debian for two main reasons. First, Debian’s staunch commitment to the open source philosophy for over 30 years was the deciding factor. Second, its acceptance of derivative efforts meets development needs.

Debian encourages the creation of new distributions and derivatives that help extend its reach to different use cases. Debian sees sharing experiences with derivatives as a way to expand the community, improve the code for existing users, and make Debian relevant to a more diverse audience.

The developers built eLxr around Debian to attract a wide range of users and contributors who value innovation and community-driven development. The goal is to foster collaboration, transparency, and the dissemination of new technologies.

This approach leverages the Debian development lifecycle, introducing innovative new content that is not yet available in Debian. It also emphasizes eLxr’s agility and responsiveness to emerging needs.

A related shared benefit is that contributions made by eLxr members remain available and benefit the broader Debian community in the long term.

Flexible development initiatives planned

According to Asselstine, Wind River and the eLxr project have a “work-in-progress” relationship. All content on eLxr.org and eLxr.dev is generated by public projects hosted on GitLab or upstream projects such as Debian.

Wind River makes it easy to get started. For example, it provided GitLab domain registration.

“As soon as a governance body, including a treasury, is established for the project, these relationships will be adjusted accordingly, allowing the project to have full control over the project assets,” he explained.

Wind River Product Management has initiated development work for the commercial release based on input from multiple sources including users, customers, partners, other external parties, and internal parties. All work will be evaluated and prioritized for inclusion in the commercial release, ensuring on-time delivery and maximum benefit to our commercial customers.

eLxr Linux Community and Pro editions are designed for several intended user scenarios. The key category is current users of existing Linux distributions such as CentOS or Ubuntu who install from ISO images and rely on runtime system configuration tools such as cloud-init, puppet, or ansible, or even manual configuration.

“The deciding factor for these users is the decision to make this change to avoid recent decisions such as CentOS moving to streaming, Ubuntu’s push to expand snap memory usage, or Red Hat’s new source code policy,” Asselstine said.

Meeting broad industrial Linux needs

Enterprise vendor disruptions, such as the CentOS end-of-life in June 2024, have forced CIOs to re-evaluate Linux vendors. According to Wind River CEO Avijit Sinha, current options are often too limiting or too complex, leading to deployments that don’t meet the dynamic requirements of this fast-growing segment.

This trend is driving demand for seamless cloud-to-edge solutions that efficiently manage complex workloads such as high-speed computing, AI and machine learning by reusing core operating system components and common code bases and frameworks.

“With eLxr Pro, customers deploying next-generation near-edge and enterprise server solutions can innovate with a free, open-source distribution optimized for performance, security, and ease of use. They can do so with confidence knowing it is backed by commercial enterprise support, professional services, and integrated software tools,” Sinha said.