The release of AlmaLinux 10.0 has been presented, synchronized with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 and containing all the changes proposed in this release. The installation images are prepared for architectures x86_64_v3, x86_64_v2, ARM64, ppc64le, and s390x in the form of a bootable image (864 MB), a minimal image (1.4 GB), and a full image (7.3 GB). Later, Live builds with GNOME, KDE, MATE, and Xfce, as well as images for Raspberry Pi, containers, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and cloud platforms will be created.
The distribution is as binary-compatible as possible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as a replacement for RHEL 10 and CentOS 10 Stream. In addition to rebranding and removing RHEL-specific packages in AlmaLinux 10.0, the following differences from RHEL 10 are noted:
- Separate builds have been created for the second version of the x86-64 microarchitecture (x86-64-v2), which are provided alongside the base x86-64 builds, optimized for the x86-64-v3 microarchitecture used in RHEL 10. Additional support for x86-64-v2 ensures compatibility with CPUs older than Intel Haswell and AMD Excavator, designed before 2013. In addition to the standard repositories, x86-64-v2 builds are also prepared for packages from the EPEL repository.
- The use of the %rbp processor register has been reinstated as the base pointer for the stack frame, containing return addresses and function variables (frame pointer). Using the frame pointer allows for the use of additional capabilities for system tracing and profiling in the distribution.
- Server and client implementations of the SPICE protocol have been reinstated, allowing for remote access to desktops operating in a virtual environment under QEMU/KVM. Unlike VNC and RDP protocols, in SPICE, screen content rendering and audio stream processing are handled on the client side, not on server. In RHEL, SPICE support was discontinued in release 9.0.
- The ability to use a hypervisor KVM on systems with IBM POWER processors has been implemented. In RHEL, such support was dropped in branch 9.0.
- The ability to boot in UEFI Secure Boot mode for systems with Intel/AMD and ARM processors has been implemented.
- Support for over 150 hardware devices that are not supported in RHEL 10 has been resumed. For example, old PCI device IDs have been returned in the drivers:
- aacraid — Dell PERC2, 2/SI, 3/SI, 3/DI, Adaptec Advanced Raid Products, HP NetRAID-4M, IBM ServeRAID & ICP SCSI
- be2iscsi — Emulex OneConnectOpen-iSCSI for BladeEngine 2 and 3
- be2net — Emulex BladeEngine 2 and 3 adapters *
- hpsa — HP Smart Array Controller
- lpfc — Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI
- megaraid_sas — Broadcom MegaRAID SAS
- mlx4_core — Mellanox Gen2 and ConnectX-2
- mpt3sas — LSI MPT Fusion SAS 3.0
- mptsas — Fusion MPT SAS Host
- qla2xxx — QLogic Fibre Channel HBA
- qla4xxx — QLogic iSCSI HBA.
The AlmaLinux distribution was founded by CloudLinux in response to Red Hat's premature discontinuation of CentOS 8 support (the release of updates for CentOS 8 was halted at the end of 2021, not in 2029 as users had expected). The project is overseen by a separate non-profit organization, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, which was created to develop it in a neutral environment with community participation and using a management model similar to that of the Fedora project. The distribution is free for all categories of users. All AlmaLinux developments are published under open licenses.
In addition to AlmaLinux, alternatives to the classic CentOS are also positioned as Rocky Linux (developed by the community under the guidance of the CentOS founder), Oracle Linux, SUSE Liberty Linux, and EuroLinux. Furthermore, Red Hat has provided the opportunity for free use of RHEL in organizations developing open-source software and in environments for individual developers with up to 16 virtual or physical systems.
Source: opennet.ru
