we can download the latest kafka kraft version - 3.5.1 from apache link - https://kafka.apache.org/downloads
but we are wondering if the same equivalent version like 3.X can also download from other providers as confluent
we search in confluent site but we not sure if we can download free the relevant rpms or the relevant tar files in order to install the brokers machine
our target is to install Kafka Kraft lab cluster but we want to understand what the other providers that supply free download packages in order to installed brokers/controllers machines
First - https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/installation/versions-interoperability.html
Confluent Platform includes Apache Kafka (and releases around 6 months of any Kafka release). There is no "Confluent Kafka"... Therefore, there is no true difference in what you choose in order to have KRaft available.
free rpms
They are, unless you choose to use Enterprise licensed packages like cp-server or control-center. https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/installation/installing_cp/rhel-centos.html
other providers
Apache BigTop is the only other one I can think of. Otherwise, plenty of people have containerized Kafka, such as Bitnami and RedHat so it can run in Kubernetes, for example.