AlmaLinux Now Available For Download As RHEL/CentOS Alternative

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AlmaLinux Now Available For Download As RHEL/CentOS Alternative

At the start of the year CloudLinux announced AlmaLinux as a 1:1 fork of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). In ending out Q1, as promised this CentOS alternative is now available for download...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Alma-Linux-Download-Now

[SkyWarrior]

Awesome. But why others (Rocky etc..) are lagging compared to this one?

Anyways. I was about to setup a new server and this might be my new go to distro for that.

Any suggestions for deployment on a 3rd gen EPYC using this distro?

[kpedersen]

Awesome. But why others (Rocky etc..) are lagging compared to this one?

Enterprise systems don't need to move at quite as fast a pace as hobbyist or enthusiast distros. Plus we still have a sane CentOS for a while more.

We will probably wait for a year (or maybe even two) and then evaluate which one is in a better position then.

Edit: Personally we are waiting to see what the Scientific Linux communities (CERN/Fermilab) are doing. Those guys usually make calculated and well informed choices.

[Devorlon]

SkyWarrior https://rockylinux.org/

The current ETA for initial release is March 31.

So it should be released later today.

[mroche]

Awesome. But why others (Rocky etc..) are lagging compared to this one?

Cloud Linux has a paid development team and pre-existing infrastructure resources + knowledge on how to spin up a build infra from scratch on said resources.

Re: EPYC --

AMD EPYC Zen3 (Milan) Processors are not supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Systems that have had their CPUs updated from Zen2 (Rome) to Zen3 (Milan) must also have their Operating Systems updated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 or later, in order to maintain their certified/supported status by Red Hat.

While the AMD EPYC Zen2 (Rome) and Zen3 (Milan) processors are electronically compatible, Red Hat does not support in-place upgrades of Zen2 to Zen3 CPUs on systems running RHEL7. In order to maintain a certified/supported status, platforms where Rome (Zen2) CPUs are updated to Milan (Zen3), must have their operating system upgraded from RHEL7 to RHEL8.3 or later. OEMs and Vendors who previously certified under RHEL7 should also undergo recertification with RHEL8.3 or later in order to retain their certified/supported status. Consumers should look for their platform on the Red Hat Hardware Certification Catalog:

https://catalog.redhat.com/hardware/...log_vendor=AMD

https://access.redhat.com/articles/5899941

Cheers,
Mike

[SkyWarrior]

Oh I see. It is good to know that RHEL 8.3 is just in time ready for Zen3 therefore Alma's first release should be fine for the system.

Thanks for the heads up.

[bash2bash]

I've been using AlmaLinux since their beta and release candidate. They've done a great job! (ok obviously they know what they are doing, since they already make CloudLinux)

It was sad to see Redhat kill the CentOS project, but at least we have two great alternatives in Alma and Rocky.

I was also quite impressed by Alma's conversion script, it migrated several CentOS 8.3 systems to AlmaLinux 8.3 without a single error/warning.

[Vistaus]

Enterprise systems don't need to move at quite as fast a pace as hobbyist or enthusiast distros. Plus we still have a sane CentOS for a while more.

We will probably wait for a year (or maybe even two) and then evaluate which one is in a better position then.

Edit: Personally we are waiting to see what the Scientific Linux communities (CERN/Fermilab) are doing. Those guys usually make calculated and well informed choices.

I didn't know you used such modern distros. I thought you were using archaic hardware which only still ran because Linux was made to keep old computers running

[eva2000]

I started testing AlmaLinux a few hours ago with VNC console install at Upcloud for compatibility testing for my LEMP stack https://community.centminmod.com/thr...console.21216/. Looks good so far

[SyXbiT]

SkyWarrior https://rockylinux.org/
So it should be released later today.

https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/community-update-march-2021/2232

Looks like a release candidate is still a month away. Still fine really though, as CentOS dies in December. Plenty of time.