Photon OS vs Rocky Linux
| Photon OS | Rocky Linux | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Paid from | — | Free |
| Open source | No | No |
| Platforms | Linux | Linux, self-hosted, Windows |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Device types | Bare-metal systems, virtual machines, Raspberry Pi, cloud instances | Servers, workstations/desktops, Raspberry Pi, virtual machines, cloud instances, containers |
| CPU architectures | x86_64, ARM64/aarch64 | x86-64-v3, riscv64, aarch64, ppc64le, s390x (Rocky Linux 10); support varies by release |
| Support lifecycle | Security updates as needed; non-security package updates described in legacy FAQ as quarterly; no fixed duration verified | Major releases: 10 years total, with 5 years active support and 5 years security support; only the latest minor release is supported |
| Built-in management | tdnf package manager; Photon Management Daemon; RPM OSTree; Network Configuration Manager | DNF package management and upgrade commands |
| App compatibility | Docker and other container formats; Kubernetes; RPM packages via tdnf; RPM OSTree | RHEL-compatible software environment; RPM packages and DNF package manager |
| Deployment models | Bare metal; VMware hypervisors; ISO installation; OVA appliance; AWS AMI; Google GCE image; Azure VHD; Raspberry Pi image | Physical installation media, generic cloud images, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Docker OCI, WSL |
Both are listed in Best Operating Systems. On Inferse, Rocky Linux scores higher on our published basis.