The Planet/ServerMatrix (I have my servers with them as well) today announced that it is the first hosting vendor to offer customers Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 ES is immediately available to customers of The Planet.

Red Hat’s existing subscription customers can also obtain the new release – but only by getting a complete fresh OS-install – that would mean complete restauration and multi-hour downtime :-(

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 is designed to utilize the Linux 2.6 kernel (the core of the operating system that performs the most basic operations), improving performance and stability for 32-bit and 64-bit workloads. It includes a new version of the Linux I/O subsystem (which manages the transfer of data between internal server components), radically increasing the performance of applications that process large amounts of information.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 also improves security through an optional Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) kernel modification. SELinux provides configurable control of access to operating system services, eliminating the vulnerabilities inherent to basing system control privileges on user and group permissions.

I asked the folks there if the finally have a supported MySql 4.1 version with their CPANELS to compliment this upgrade… I will keep you posted…