On December 22, 2020, Rocky Linux community manager Jordan Pisaniello announced that the target for an initial release was anywhere between March and May of 2021.[12] On January 20, 2021, it was announced that a test repository would be made available to the public by the end of February, and a release candidate was on target for the end of March 2021.[13] However, that date was slightly pushed back,[14] and on April 30, 2021, the first release candidate was officially released.[15] The second release candidate, of version 8.4, the last before the stable release, was released on June 4, 2021.[16] On June 21, 2021, the stable release of Rocky Linux 8.4 was released,[17] with the code name "Green Obsidian".[18]