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New Distro Derivative Expands Enterprise Linux Ecosystem

eLxr is a brand new community open-source project that has just emerged from the DebConf24 South Korea Conference on July 28, 2018. It is a Debian variant with intelligent edge features designed to simplify edge-to cloud deployment strategies.

Edge computing distributions are a framework for bringing enterprise applications close to data sources, such as IoT or local edge servers. The eLxr team launched the first Debian derivative, inheriting Debian’s intelligence edge capabilities. The community intends to expand them for a streamlined approach of edge-to cloud deployment.

eLxr is an enterprise-grade Linux open-source distribution that addresses the challenges and unique requirements of networks at the edge. According to eLxr.org this approach strengthens Debian’s feature set by expanding it and improving its quality.

Community Focused Enterprise Support

It is important to note that the word “you” means “you”. eLxr project In June, a community-driven initiative was launched to provide access to cutting edge technologies to both enterprise and enthusiast users who are looking for a next generation solution that can scale from the edge to the cloud using Debian Linux. The community’s focus is on innovation, accessibility and maintaining open-source Linux software integrity.

Mark Asselstine is the principal technologist for Wind River and eLxr. According to him, Aria’s latest version is based off Debian 12 Bookworm. It follows Debian’s release path and adds its own versioning, with the first release being eLxr 12.6.1.0 — Aria.

Wind River, a custom-embedded Linux OS builder, announced Tuesday that it was taking eLxr’s community version to a whole new level. It launched eLxr, a commercial enterprise Linux solution that addresses the needs of cloud to edge deployments. eLxr Pro provides long-term, commercial support and service to the recently launched open source eLxr distribution.

Asselstine said to LinuxInsider, eLxr is and will always be a project based on community. It uses an upstream-first approach and plans to consistently contribute to Debian’s and Linux Foundation’s projects.

Under the Enterprise Hood

Wind River is a founder member of the eLxr Community. The company made a contribution to the eLxr initial release. AWS is another supporter. CapgeminiIntel, SAIC & Supermicro

Wind River created the new Linux enterprise OS version for commercial use to meet the needs of edge cloud deployments. It focuses on AI and supporting critical workloads.

The project helps organizations with enterprise and high-performance edge needs meet the performance and operation requirements of a broad range of markets. This includes autonomous vehicles, aerospace, defense, energy and finance, healthcare, industrial automaton, smart cities and telecom.

eLxr plans to support other platforms, including Arm64 and Arm System Ready. It currently supports x86_64 (optimized for UEFI 64).

eLxr Pro is also designed to address the challenges associated with optimizing and deploying edge applications that process data nearer to its source. It is designed to handle workloads that require remote automatic updates, containerized apps, orchestration and inference-AI.

Building on Embedded Linux use cases

In the last decade, solutions that “build from the source” such as Yocto Project or Buildroot have gained popularity for their ability to enable various use cases on the intelligent edge. These experiences led to the creation of eLxr.

Traditional methods for building embedded Linux devices allow extensive customizations, and can generate a Software Development Kit (SDK), which provides a cross-development toolset. It allowed developers to optimize the performance of devices with limited resources while offloading tasks to machines that were more powerful.

Edge deployments are increasingly demanding connectivity. This includes over-the air (OTA) updates as well as new paradigms like data aggregation. edge processing. predictive maintenance. and various machine-learning features. Such complexities impose significant burdens — the need to monitor for CVEs and bugs, the use of additional SBOMs and diverse update cadences, and many other challenges.

These issues created the need for a new architectural approach, both for near-edge devices as well as servers. It is necessary to use multiple distributions. This creates a heterogeneous operating environment, increasing cost and complexity.

This led to the creation of eLxr – a Debian derivative that combines traditional installers and a new set distro to order tools.

This initiative, when combined with a unified technology stack, offers a significant strategic advantage to enterprises looking to optimize their edge deployments. It creates a seamless environment across all devices and lays the foundation for future innovation in edge-to cloud deployments. Existing enterprise software solutions are more slow than the speed users need to adopt and innovate new technologies.

The Debian Connection

The eLxr Project chose Debian primarily for two reasons. Debian’s unwavering commitment to the open source philosophy over the past 30 years is a key factor. Second, Debian’s embrace derivative efforts suits the needs of development.

Debian encourages creation of new derivatives and distributions to expand its reach in various use cases. Debian views sharing derivative experiences as a means to expand the community, improve code for existing users and make Debian more suitable for a diverse audience.

Developers designed eLxr to be based around Debian, in order for it to appeal to a large number of users who are interested in innovation and community-driven developments. The goal of eLxr is to promote collaboration, transparency, as well as spreading new technologies.

This approach enables Debian to continue its development cycle by introducing innovative, new content which is not currently available in Debian. It also highlights eLxr’s agility and responsiveness towards emerging needs.

The broader Debian Community will benefit from the contributions of eLxr community members in the long run.

Flexible Developmental Initiatives are Planned

Asselstine said that Wind River and eLxr have a relationship of work-in progress. The content of eLxr.org, eLxr.dev and other public projects are all generated on GitLab You can also use upstream projects, such as Debian.

Wind River simplifies the first stages. It has, for example, provided domain registration of GitLab.

He explained that once a project has a governance structure, which includes a treasury department, the relationship will be adjusted to allow the project to have full control over its assets.

Wind River Product Management began development on the commercial version after receiving input from multiple sources including customers, partners and other third parties. All work is evaluated and prioritised for inclusion into the commercial version. This ensures timely delivery of our commercial customers and maximizes their benefit.

eLxr’s community and Pro editions are designed to target different user scenarios. One key group is existing Linux users who have completed installations using ISOs. They may also use runtime configuration tools like cloud-init or puppet or even manually configure their systems.

Asselstine stated that “the driving factor for these customers is to switch in order to avoid recent decisions like CentOS’s move towards a stream-release, Ubuntu’s push to increase the use of Snaps or Red Hat’s new source policy.”

Meeting Broad Industrial Linux Needs

CIOs have been forced to evaluate their Linux vendors due to disruptions in the enterprise supplier market, like the end of CentOS in 2024. Wind River’s Avijit Sinha says that current options can be too complex or limiting, leading to implementations which do not meet the needs of this rapidly changing segment.

This trend drives the demand for cloud-to edge solutions that manage complex workloads efficiently, such as AI, rapid data processing and machine learning. These solutions rely on core operating system components, common codebases, and frameworks.

Customers deploying enterprise and near-edge server solutions of the future can innovate with eLxr Pro thanks to a free open-source distribution that is optimized for performance and security. The customers can deploy the solutions with confidence because eLxr Pro is backed by enterprise support, integrated software, and professional services.