Amazon unveiled the general availability of Amazon Linux 2023 (AL2023), a Linux-based operating system designed to deliver a secure, stable, and high-performance environment for developing and running cloud applications on AWS. AL2023 provides seamless integration with various AWS services and development tools and is optimized for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Graviton-based instances. AWS Support is included at no additional licensing cost.

Beginning with AL2023, Amazon Linux major releases will be available every two years, providing users with a more predictable release cycle and up to five years of support, which simplifies upgrade planning. AL2023 offers several improvements over its predecessor, Amazon Linux 2 (AL2). Key enhancements include a security-by-default approach, preconfigured security policies, SELinux in permissive mode, and IMDSv2 enabled by default. Users will also benefit from the availability of kernel live patching.

AL2023 allows for deterministic upgrades through versioned repositories, enabling users to lock to a specific version of the Amazon Linux package repository. This feature provides greater control over how and when updates are absorbed, ensuring consistency between package versions and updates across the environment.

Amazon Linux 2023 is now available in all AWS Regions, including AWS GovCloud (US) and the China Regions. For more information on AL2023, users can refer to the AWS documentation and the comparison between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023.