Scientific Linux is a recompiled Red Hat Enterprise Linux, co-developed by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the CERN.

Scientific Linux (SL) is a Linux distribution produced by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It is a free and open source operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and aims to be 100% compatible with and based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

This product is derived from the free & open source software made available by Red Hat, Inc., but is not produced, maintained or supported by Red Hat. Specifically, this product is built from the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions, under the terms and conditions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux's EULA and the GNU General Public License.

Updates: (Via Distrowatch):

Troy Dawson has announced the availability of the first alpha release of Troy Dawson has announced that the second alpha release of Scientific Linux 6.1, a distribution built by compiling the source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1, is ready for testing: "The second alpha release for Scientific Linux 6.1 has been released. All of the packages have gone through much more testing. There are still a couple of packages we are investigating, so we are still in alpha stage and not beta stage. Changes alpha 1: redhat-logos - updated syslinux-splash.png and plash.xpm.gz, added the SVG files into the source tar ball; yum-autoupdate - fix a security issue with the tmp configuration files; added our changes to the updated report and plymouth package; mksh - we got it to compile; fence-virt - had to be recompiled with the old qmf packages removed from the repository; elrepo-release updated to the latest version...."

See the release announcement for more details.

Download: SL-6-i386-2011-06-23-Install-DVD.iso (3,609MB, SHA1), SL-6-x86_64-2011-06-23-Install-DVD.iso (4,187MB, SHA1).

Recent releases:

• 2011-06-23: Development Release: Scientific Linux 6.1 Alpha 2
• 2011-06-21: Distribution Release: Scientific Linux 5.6
• 2011-06-18: Development Release: Scientific Linux 5.6 RC2
• 2011-06-08: Development Release: Scientific Linux 5.6 RC1
• 2011-06-02: Development Release: Scientific Linux 6.1 Alpha 1
• 2011-05-13: Development Release: Scientific Linux 5.6 Beta 2

Fermilab already had a Linux distribution known as Fermi Linux LTS 3.0.1, based on RHEL. CERN was creating their next version of Cern Linux, also based on RHEL. CERN contacted Fermilab about doing a joint collaboration. Connie Sieh was the main developer and driver behind the first prototypes and initial release.

The first official release was on May 10, 2004.

At the release of Scientific Linux 3.0.1, CERN joined in the collaboration and became co-developers of Scientific Linux.

Scientific Linux includes software suited for scientists and people working with scientific data. This includes FITS libraries, Graphviz, and R.

Latest Supported Releases.

Scientific Linux 5.5
Installing SL5		i386: Install CD - Install DVD - Live CD/DVD
Security Errata SL5x: i386 - x86_64		x86_64: Install CD - Install DVD - Live CD/DVD

Scientific Linux 4.8
Installing SL4		i386: Install CD - Install DVD - Live CD/DVD
Security Errata SL4x: i386 - x86_64		x86_64: Install CD - Install DVD - Live CD/DVD

Scientific Linux 3.0.9
Installing SL309		i386: Install CD
Security Errata SL309: i386 - x86_64		x86_64: Install CD's