AlmaLinux is a free, open source Linux distribution, created by CloudLinux and supported both by CloudLinux and other sponsors. It is focused on long-term stability and governed by the community; with regular releases. It is licensed under General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) and other licenses.
AlmaLinux distribution
Like other distributions such as Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux was born as an alternative downstream of RHEL after CentOS’ discontinuation in December 2021. Red Hat has replaced CentOS Linux with a rolling release: CentOS Stream. So, when creating this new distro, CloudLinux aimed to provide a community-supported, enterprise-grade OS compatible with new releases of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux).
The AlmaLinux OS Foundation, a non-profit organization, was established to take ownership of the project. It has different classes of membership: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Contributor, Alumnus and Mirror. Moreover, as mentioned above, apart from CloudLinux, many other organizations, such as Equinix, Plesk and cPanel, back the project as well.
The source code and tools used to build the distro are on AlmaLinux’s GitHub. Besides, users can interact and discuss with other users via the distribution’s community chat, forum and Reddit.
Releases
The first stable release of AlmaLinux, version 8.3 (codename: Purple Manul), was released in March 2021.
AlmaLinux OS 9.0
As of December 2023, the latest release is AlmaLinux 9.3, released in November 2023 and codenamed “Shamrock Pampas Cat”. This version supports the following architectures: Intel/AMD (x86_64), ARM64 (aarch64), IBM PowerPC (ppc64le) and IBM Z (s390x). It is based on kernel version 5.14.0-362.8.1 and delivers enhancements for performance monitoring tools, security, compilers, etc.
The AlmaLinux 9.x series is expected to include active support until May 2027 and security support until May 2032.
| Release | Codename | Kernel | Release date |
| 9.0 | Emerald Puma | 5.14.0-362.8.1 | May 2022 |
| 9.1 | Lime Lynx | 5.14.0-284.11.1 | November 2022 |
| 9.2 | Turquoise Kodkod | 5.14.0-162.6.1 | May 2023 |
| 9.3 | Shamrock Pampas Cat | 5.14.0-70.13.1 | November 2023 |
AlmaLinux OS 8.0
The AlmaLinux 8.x series is expected to include active support until May 2024 and security support until March 2029.
| Release | Codename | Kernel | Release date |
| 8.3 | Purple Manul | 5.18.0-240 | March 2021 |
| 8.4 | Electric Cheetah | 5.18.0-305 | May 2021 |
| 8.5 | Arctic Sphynx | 5.18.0-348 | November 2021 |
| 8.6 | Sky Tiger | 5.18.0-372.9.1 | May 2022 |
| 8.7 | Stone Smilodon | 5.18.0-425.3.1 | November 2022 |
| 8.8 | Sapphire Caracal | 5.18.0-477.10.1 | May 2023 |
| 8.9 | Midnight Oncilla | 5.18.0-513.5.1 | November 2023 |
You can find further details about it in AlmaLinux’s website.
