The release of AlmaLinux 9.7 is now available, synchronized with the new release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.7 and containing all the changes proposed in this release. Install images are prepared for x86_64, ARM64, ppc64le, and s390x architectures in the form of bootable (1 GB), minimal (2 GB), and full images (10 GB). Live builds with GNOME, KDE, MATE, and Xfce will be created later, as well as images for Raspberry Pi devices, containers, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and cloud platforms.
The distribution is as binary compatible as possible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as a replacement for RHEL 9.7 and CentOS 9 Stream. The changes consist of rebranding, removal of RHEL-specific packages such as redhat-*, insights-client, subscription-manager-migration*, kpatch*, kmod-redhat-*, rhc, spice*, and virtio-win, as well as an expansion of hardware support. Specifically, compared to RHEL, AlmaLinux adds support for additional device identifiers such as Compaq, LSI SAS 10xx/2xxx, LSI MegaRAID SAS1078, HP NetRAID-4M, Adaptec 5400S, Dell PERC 2*/3*, Dell PERC5, QLogic ISP, Emulex BladeEngine 2/3, Emulex OneConnect, Themisto/Callisto Jupiter Platform, IBM 8i, Adaptec Catch All, CERC SATA RAID, Legend, and more.
Additionally, a repository Synergy is available for use, containing packages that differ from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Currently, the Synergy repository has already published packages with the Pantheon user environment developed by the Elementary OS project, and the Warpinator utility designed for encrypted file sharing between two computers.
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
