openEuler: Enterprise Linux Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the Enterprise Linux Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: community project (foundation hosted)
Owner: OpenAtom Foundation (China), which received the source from Huawei on 2021-11-09; Huawei remains the origin vendor
Licence: Open source; the documentation site states Mulan PSL v2 for the project; no subscription from the foundation, commercial support comes from derivative vendors
Latest release: 24.03 LTS SP4 (repository directory dated 2026-09-08; press coverage dates it June 2026); innovation release 26.09 (directory 2026-10-08)
Support lifecycle: LTS every two years, innovation release every six months; service packs for 24.03 LTS arrived in 2025-01, 2025-06, 2026-03 and 2026-09
Next milestone: none published in English; no 26.03 LTS directory exists on the repository
Support window: Four years of community support per LTS and six months per innovation release, per the 2020 policy post; the current lifecycle table on the lifecycle page is an image and not readable (grade C); no paid extension published by the foundation
Tier: Asian distribution
Archetype: Sponsor-aligned builder
Evidence grade: C. Release directories, the 2020 lifecycle policy, the projects page and the AWS Marketplace listing were read from project sources. The lifecycle table is an image, the news and community pages returned HTTP 403, and release contents come from press coverage and a foundation press release, so most capability states are inferred.

Scope of the scores: China-led foundation project with most governance and documentation activity in Chinese. The news and community pages returned HTTP 403 on 2026-10-15, so several scores rest on repository listings, a foundation press release and press coverage rather than release notes.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	55.5 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+10.0 points (2020 to 2022: +2.5)	higher is better
Credibility	15.5 / 25	higher is better
Sustainability risk	9.5 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	9.0 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	7.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	10.5 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	55.7 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Lifecycle and upgrades (15)	n/a	n/a	3	3
Security and compliance (15)	n/a	n/a	2	2.5
Hardware and architectures (10)	n/a	n/a	3	4
Virtualization and cloud images (10)	n/a	n/a	2	2.5
Containers and Kubernetes host (10)	n/a	n/a	3	3
Software currency and packaging (10)	n/a	n/a	2.5	3
Fleet management and automation (10)	n/a	n/a	1.5	1.5
Storage and filesystems (5)	n/a	n/a	3	3
Enterprise integration and certifications (5)	n/a	n/a	1.5	2
AI and GPU readiness (10)	n/a	n/a	1	3
Total / 100	n/a	n/a	45.5	55.5

Year by year: 2020: 43.0 · 2021: 44.0 · 2022: 45.5 · 2023: 45.5 · 2024: 52.0 · 2025: 53.5 · 2026: 55.5

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2021	Containers and Kubernetes host	2.5 → 3	+1.0	NestOS container host variant (2021-11); iSulad runtime; KubeEdge and K3S documented for edge
2022	Lifecycle and upgrades	2.5 → 3	+1.5	22.03 LTS: service packs roughly every six months (SP1 to SP4 through 2024-11); the lifecycle table itself is not readable
2024	AI and GPU readiness	1 → 2	+2.0	24.03 LTS: EulerCopilot assistant and AI container images (press coverage)
2024	Hardware and architectures	3 → 4	+2.0	24.03 LTS: x86-64, AArch64, LoongArch and RISC-V builds; PowerPC and SW-64 listed by the project; no hardware catalogue read
2024	Security and compliance	2 → 2.5	+1.5	24.03 LTS: secGear confidential computing suite and kernel 6.6 base; errata feed, secure boot and CIS profiles not verified
2024	Software currency and packaging	2.5 → 3	+1.0	24.03 LTS: kernel 6.6 and BiSheng JDK; innovation releases every six months
2025	AI and GPU readiness	2 → 2.5	+1.0	24.03 LTS SP3: first SuperPoD release; Intelligence BooM 2507 and 2511
2025	Enterprise integration and certifications	1.5 → 2	+0.5	Summit 2025: 2,100 member organisations; AMD adapted its server processors; no AD, SAP or Oracle certification read
2026	AI and GPU readiness	2.5 → 3	+1.0	24.03 LTS SP4: xSched NPU scheduling and XPU Turbo inference scheduling; NVIDIA and AMD repositories not verified
2026	Virtualization and cloud images	2 → 2.5	+1.0	24.03 LTS SP4: free official image on AWS Marketplace published by the project; StratoVirt VMM; other clouds not verified

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-03	23.03 innovation release	Packaging	U
2023-09	23.09 innovation release	Packaging	U
2024-06	24.03 LTS: kernel 6.6, EulerCopilot assistant, four architectures, four years of support	AI	V
2024-11	24.09 innovation release; 22.03 LTS SP4	Lifecycle	U
2025-01	24.03 LTS SP1	Lifecycle	C
2025-04	25.03 innovation release	Packaging	U
2025-06	24.03 LTS SP2	Lifecycle	C
2025-07	Intelligence BooM 2507: full-stack AI solution	AI	V
2025-09	25.09 innovation release	Packaging	U
2025-11	Summit 2025: AMD, Inspur Cloud and Digital China join; 2,100 members; 16 million installations targeted	Governance	C
2025-12	24.03 LTS SP3: first release built for SuperPoD and UnifiedBus; Intelligence BooM 2511	Hardware	P
2026-04	openEuler Embedded 26.03	Hardware	U
2026-06	24.03 LTS SP4: 64K kernel option for Arm, xSched NPU scheduling, XPU Turbo, confidential computing broker	AI	P
2026-10	26.09 innovation release directory published; no 26.03 LTS	Lifecycle	U

Centre of gravity: Packaging (4), Lifecycle (4), AI (3)
Blind spots (no items): Security, Virtualization and cloud, Containers, Fleet management, Storage, Enterprise integration, Licensing
Driver mix: Vision 14%, Customer need 21%, Market window 0%, Upstream 50%, Portfolio 14%
Idea-to-need index: 0.40 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 15.5 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	3.5	Innovation release every six months and an LTS every two years, kept from 2020 to 2025; the 26.03 LTS the pattern predicts has not appeared
Roadmap transparency	2.5	Release policy published in 2020 and open Gitee trackers, but the lifecycle table is an image and news pages were unreachable from outside
Say-do	3	Six-month calendar held through 26.09; the 16 million installation target was reported as met; SuperPoD support shipped in SP3 as announced; 26.03 LTS missing
Velocity	3.5	SP3 and SP4 added SuperPoD support, a 64K Arm kernel, NPU scheduling and confidential computing pieces within six months of each other
Lifecycle stability	3	Four-year LTS window with regular service packs; no renames; whether the window was extended cannot be read from the image table

Sustainability risk: 9.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Maintainer concentration	3.5	Huawei is the origin vendor and the sponsor of the SuperPoD and Ascend work; its share of commits is not published in English; 23,000 contributors claimed
Backer health	2	OpenAtom Foundation hosts the project with 2,100 member organisations; funding depends on Huawei and other Chinese vendors
Licence-change risk	1	Mulan PSL v2 stated for the project; packages keep upstream licences; no relicensing seen
Abandonment signs	0.5	Releases every six months through 2026-10 and service packs for two LTS lines in 2026
Security response	2.5	A security directory and advisories exist on the repository, but the advisory process and CVE response times were not read

Technical lock-in: 9.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	1	RPM, qcow2 and OCI images; openEuler-specific kernel and packages
Export path	2	No RHEL compatibility promise; migration tooling away from openEuler not found
Stack coupling	1	Any storage and standard Linux networking
Hardware / cloud coupling	2	Strongest on Kunpeng Arm, Ascend and domestic CPUs; x86-64 supported; AWS image available
Skills and tooling coupling	3	Skills, training and most documentation concentrated in China; English docs cover the main guides

Integrator fit: 7.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	2.5	Community membership open to companies; compatibility certification exists but its terms were not read
Multi-tenancy and self-service	0.5	Nothing in the OS beyond standard Linux accounts
API and infrastructure-as-code	2.5	Standard Linux tooling; no vendor management API
Skills and certification	1.5	Certification programmes operate in China; availability elsewhere not verified

AI leverage: 10.5 / 20

How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI workload support	n/a	1	2.5	2026: 24.03 LTS SP4: xSched NPU scheduling framework and UB OS components; NVIDIA and AMD driver repositories not verified
AI platform stack	n/a	0	2.5	2025: Intelligence BooM 2507 and 2511: full-stack AI solution with fine-tuning and inference (vendor claim; two adopting partners named)
AI-assisted operations	n/a	1	2.5	2024: 24.03 LTS: EulerCopilot assistant for problem analysis and operations (press coverage; scope not verified)
Agent openness	n/a	1	3	2026: openEuler Intelligence: LLM platform with MCP services and agent-based apps on the projects page; maturity not verified

Year by year: 2020: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2025: 8 · 2026: 10.5

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 6 AI items announced; 5 GA, 1 still preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. EulerCopilot, Intelligence BooM 2507 and 2511, SuperPoD support in SP3 and xSched in SP4 counted as GA from vendor pages and press coverage; openEuler Intelligence counted as preview because no release note was read.

openEuler puts more AI into the operating system than any other distribution in this group: an LLM platform with MCP services, a tuning engine, an assistant and NPU scheduling. The evidence is vendor pages and press coverage, the accelerators are Huawei's, and NVIDIA or AMD driver repositories could not be confirmed.

Reading

openEuler scores like a mid-table enterprise distribution with one strength, architecture breadth, and one weakness, visibility. It ships every six months, covers six CPU families and now runs a full AI stack, yet the lifecycle table is an image, security errata and certifications could not be read, and much of the record sits behind pages that refuse outside requests. The sustainability risk is concentration: the foundation is real, but the hardware and AI roadmap follows Huawei. A buyer should first ask the vendor for the written support end date of 24.03 LTS and the advisory feed, because neither could be read here.

Open questions and items to re-score

Lifecycle table is an image: LTS and service pack end dates, and whether the four-year window of the 2020 policy still applies, are unverified (grade C).
No 26.03 LTS directory exists although the naming pattern predicts one; the next LTS and its date are unknown.
Security errata feed with CVE references, secure boot and CIS or national certification status not verified.
Huawei's share of commits and the governance bodies (technical committee, board) not read.
Cloud images beyond AWS Marketplace, a hardware compatibility catalogue and NVIDIA or AMD repositories not verified.
openEuler Intelligence, EulerCopilot and Intelligence BooM were read from a projects page, a press release and press coverage, not release notes.