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Screenshot of default desktop on AlmaLinux version 9.1, showing AlmaLinux homepage in Firefox. | |||||
Developer | The AlmaLinux OS Foundation | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Written in | C (kernel) | ||||
OS family | Linux (Unix-like) | ||||
Working state | Current | ||||
Source model | Open source | ||||
Initial release | 30 March 2021 | ||||
Latest release |
| ||||
Repository | github | ||||
Marketing target | Servers, desktop computers, workstations, supercomputers | ||||
Update method | DNF | ||||
Package manager | RPM | ||||
Platforms | x86-64 AArch64 ppc64le s390x | ||||
Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux kernel) | ||||
Userland | GNU | ||||
Default user interface | GNOME Shell, Bash | ||||
License | GPLv2 and others | ||||
Preceded by | CentOS | ||||
Official website | almalinux |
AlmaLinux is a free and open source Linux distribution, created originally by CloudLinux to provide a community-supported, production-grade enterprise operating system that is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The first stable release of AlmaLinux was published on March 30, 2021,[1] and will be supported through March 1, 2029.[2]
The name of the distribution comes from the word "alma", meaning "soul" in Spanish and other Latin languages. It was chosen to be an homage to the Linux community.[3]
On December 8, 2020, Red Hat announced that development of CentOS Linux, a free-of-cost downstream fork of the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), would be discontinued and its official support would be cut short to focus on CentOS Stream, a stable LTS release without minor releases officially used by Red Hat to preview what is intended for inclusion in updates to RHEL.[4][5][6]
In response, CloudLinux – which maintains its own commercial Linux distribution, CloudLinux OS – created AlmaLinux to provide a community-supported spiritual successor to CentOS Linux, aiming for binary-compatibility with the current version of RHEL.[7] A beta version of AlmaLinux was first released on February 1, 2021,[8] and the first stable release of AlmaLinux was published on March 30, 2021.[1] AlmaLinux 8.x will be supported until 2029.[7] Numerous companies, such as ARM, AWS, Equinix, and Microsoft, also support AlmaLinux.[9] On March 30, 2021, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation was created as a 501(c) organization to take over AlmaLinux development and governance from CloudLinux, which has promised $1 million in annual funding to the project.[10]
In September of 2022 the AlmaLinux OS Foundation held its first election,[11] announcing a board of 7 community-elected members on September 19th.[12]
On December 7th, 2022 it was announced that CERN and Fermilab would be providing AlmaLinux as the standard operating system for their experiments.[13]
AlmaLinux version | Codename | Architectures | RHEL base | Kernel | AlmaLinux release date | RHEL release date | Delay (days) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
8.3 | Purple Manul | x86-64 | 8.3 | 4.18.0-240 | 2021-03-30[1] | 2020-11-03[14] | 147 / 110 * |
8.4 | Electric Cheetah | x86-64, ARM64 | 8.4 | 4.18.0-305 | 2021-05-26[15] | 2021-05-18[14] | 8 |
8.5 | Arctic Sphynx | x86-64, ARM64, ppc64le | 8.5 | 4.18.0-348 | 2021-11-12,[16] 2022-02-25[17] | 2021-11-09[14] | 3 |
8.6 | Sky Tiger | x86-64, ARM64, ppc64le, s390x | 8.6 | 4.18.0-372 | 2022-05-12[18] | 2022-05-10[14] | 2 |
8.7 | Stone Smilodon | 8.7 | 4.18.0-425 | 2022-11-10[19] | 2022-11-09[14] | 1 | |
9.0 | Emerald Puma | 9.0 | 5.14.0-70.13.1 | 2022-05-26[20] | 2022-05-17[14] | 9 | |
9.1 | Lime Lynx | 9.1 | 5.14.0-162.6.1 | 2022-11-17[21] | 2022-11-15[14] | 2 |
* AlmaLinux was announced 10 December 2020
, first beta release was 53 days later.