AlmaLinux is born!!

beagle

It seems CloudLinux is the first out of the gate offering a CentOS alternative :

https://blog.cloudlinux.com/almalinux-is-born

AlmaLinux – answering the community need for a CentOS replacement

In December 2020, the community lost one of its most important resources. Red Hat announced that CentOS would no longer be issued as a stable release, instead replaced by the continuously updated CentOS Stream.

At CloudLinux we quickly realized the vast implications of Red Hat’s announcement, so we stepped in to commit to a CentOS replacement: a 1:1 binary compatible fork of RHEL® that is free to use, and open source. We gave it the code name Project Lenix.

Now, we are announcing the results of Project Lenix: AlmaLinux. Due to be released in Q1 2021, the new Linux distribution enables CentOS users to easily switch to a CentOS replacement that enjoys ongoing support.

Switching requires minimal effort: because AlmaLinux is a binary compatible fork of RHEL, the base for CentOS, switching from CentOS to AlmaLinux is extremely simple.

Keeping an eye out on RockLinux as well:

https://rockylinux.org/

InceptionHosting

I am guessing it will have a subscription model, if not now eventually, that's the only thing putting me off even testing it right now.

beagle

Yes, I'm suspicious as well. I'm betting on RockyLinux as an alternative. They should have a "CentOS 8" equivalent release later this year.

CamoYoshi

Me having used Debian since day one:

flips

@CamoYoshi said: Me having used Debian since day one:

Debian 1.0? I didn't switch until 2.0 was out ...

CamoYoshi

@flips said:

@CamoYoshi said: Me having used Debian since day one:

Debian 1.0? I didn't switch until 2.0 was out ...

Haha, no I'm not that old (yet). I started using Debian at version 6.0. Prior to that... well I didn't run Linux at all on anything because I was only 12 at the time and didn't have a PC I could call my own, LOL.

flips

@CamoYoshi said:
Haha, no I'm not that old (yet). (...)

I guess I am that old ...

rajprakash

@flips said:

@CamoYoshi said:
Haha, no I'm not that old (yet). (...)

I guess I am that old ...

Same. I joined Deb at slink, and stayed ever since. Ran Redhat 4.2 before slink, and Slackware 96 before that!

daffy

@flips said:

@CamoYoshi said:
Haha, no I'm not that old (yet). (...)

I guess I am that old ...

Haha, same here! Or, ish, think I started at 3.something.
Before that Mandrake!

flips

@rajprakash said: Same. I joined Deb at slink, and stayed ever since. Ran Redhat 4.2 before slink, and Slackware 96 before that!

I started out with Linux FT, then Slack, then RedHat 3.0.3 was a classic for a long time. Last RedHat before I switched to Debian was 4.2, yes. (I remember if you bought RH, you got the commercial X server Metro-X or something.)

I also used Applixware Office suite.

@daffy said: Haha, same here! Or, ish, think I started at 3.something.
Before that Mandrake!

I did try Mandrake once ...
(Is Mandriva the same thing?)

Slack had it's charm, though, but the upgradeability of Debian is just nuts ... (An old Slink was updated all the way to Debian 6 or 7 before the hardware died.)

On my list to try is Void Linux (mentioned here by @WSS a while back) ...

MikeA

@AnthonySmith said:
I am guessing it will have a subscription model, if not now eventually, that's the only thing putting me off even testing it right now.

I wouldn't think so.

InceptionHosting

@MikeA said: I wouldn't think so.

Well, given that it is a commercial entity that already charges for everything else I have to have at least some sceptisism, if not for the core then there will be some integration like paid auto-patching al la KernelKare with the poor relation model.

MikeA

@AnthonySmith said:

@MikeA said: I wouldn't think so.

Well, given that it is a commercial entity that already charges for everything else I have to have at least some sceptisism, if not for the core then there will be some integration like paid auto-patching al la KernelKare with the poor relation model.

I mean, if it's supposedly a 1:1 fork of RHEL and open source I doubt they would make people pay for it? It does give them massive advertisement for their business after all.

InceptionHosting

@MikeA said:

@AnthonySmith said:

@MikeA said: I wouldn't think so.

Well, given that it is a commercial entity that already charges for everything else I have to have at least some sceptisism, if not for the core then there will be some integration like paid auto-patching al la KernelKare with the poor relation model.

I mean, if it's supposedly a 1:1 fork of RHEL and open source I doubt they would make people pay for it? It does give them massive advertisement for their business after all.

yep, you could be right, but I am more thinking of the 'extras' outside of the 1:1 which is essentially their entire business model, I suppose time will be the judge

_MS_

When I read the CentOS Stream news, my first thought was, "cPanel + Red Hat/CentOS to CloudLinux => cPanel + cheap/free RHEL alternative by CloudLinux + CloudLinux + KernelCare + Imunify360?". I mean, it was pretty obvious that they would be launching their own Red Hat/CentOS alternative. Now, CloudLinux doesn't have to convert Red Hat/CentOS to CloudLinux anymore; instead they offer their own base OS.

I'm sure they'll be writing blog posts about why it makes sense for cPanel hosting providers to use AlmaLinux instead of any other RHEL alternative (better integration with other CloudLinux products).

Now, they just need to create a backup & restore solution, then cPanel will become just an add-on to the CloudLinux ecosystem.

InceptionHosting

MS said:
When I read the CentOS Stream news, my first thought was, "cPanel + Red Hat/CentOS to CloudLinux => cPanel + cheap/free RHEL alternative by CloudLinux + CloudLinux + KernelCare + Imunify360?". I mean, it was pretty obvious that they would be launching their own Red Hat/CentOS alternative. Now, CloudLinux doesn't have to convert Red Hat/CentOS to CloudLinux anymore; instead they offer their own base OS.

I'm sure they'll be writing blog posts about why it makes sense for cPanel hosting providers to use AlmaLinux instead of any other RHEL alternative (better integration with other CL products).

Now, they just need to create a backup & restore solution, then cPanel become an add-on to CloudLinux.

I am not quite sure what it is, I have not been able to fully make sense of the "hmm" in my head but they can't possibly promote the use of alma as standard, at least not over CL, CL costs $14 /month after all.

So conversion is still required anyway in exactly the same way as it's supposed to be 1:1 if they slightly change that 1:1 to make or promote the transition to CL then... that was kind of what I was concerned about, that it is that which drives the progress of alma.

I dunno, I think the real answer here is: Debian thx.

cornercase

Who would have thought that Red Hat would discontinue their popular free distro?! Only anyone who remembers the fate of Red Hat Linux!

At least this time they seem to be offering some kind of a migration path to their commercial offering, but one abruptly dead-end distro was enough for me to switch to anything-but-Red-Hat forever.

SpeedBus

I have a feeling they won't charge anything for Alma, infact Alma is their best option in itself, all their "products" (CloudLinux, KernelCare etc) depend on RHEL (CentOS) or well have been built specifically for RHEL/CentOS, with CentOS 7 EOL in 2024 and 8 EOL somewhere in 2021 (?), most larger providers would be looking to switch newer deployments to CentOS 8 this year or by next, it'd be easier (possibly cheaper too) for them to compile RHEL packages, build a basic installer (probably fork the same CentOS 8 installer with a few changes) and then roll it out, at least this would cover them and their products till 2029.

In the mean time, when RHEL 9 comes out (I guess somewhere in 2023-2024 ?), that's when things might change again as that would need a whole new effort to build/support etc, if it's still commercially viable by then, we'd probably see a build of it by Alma, else probably not.

This would also give them time to re-base their code to work on Debian or Ubuntu or whatever cPanel/DA (if) move onto by then.

SpeedBus

BETA ISOs are out for AlmaLinux!

https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/8.3-beta/isos/x86_64/

Did anyone try it out yet?