The latest release of the distribution AlmaLinux 9.6 has been synchronized with the new release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6, incorporating all the changes proposed in this version. Installation images for architectures x86_64, ARM64, PPC64le, and S390X are available in the form of boot (1 GB), minimal (2 GB), and complete images (10 GB). Live-assembly images with GNOME, KDE, Mate, and XFCE, as well as images for Raspberry Pi, containers, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and cloud platforms will be available later.
The distribution is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can serve as a replacement for RHEL 9.6 and CentOS 9 Stream. Changes mainly involve rebranding, removing Red Hat-specific packages, and expanding hardware support. Additional hardware support has been added in AlmaLinux, including identifiers for various manufacturers.
The Synergy repository, different from Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is also available for use. This repository already includes packages with Pantheon user environment, the Elementary OS project, and the Warpinator utility for encrypted file exchanges.
AlmaLinux, based on CloudLinux, was created in response to the premature end of support for CentOS 8 by Red Hat. The project is overseen by the non-profit organization AlmaLinux OS Foundation, following a community-driven development model similar to Fedora. The distribution is free for all users and all contributions to AlmaLinux are published under free licenses.
Other alternatives to CentOS include Rocky Linux, Oracle Linux, SUSE Linux, and EuroLinux. Additionally, Red Hat offers free use of RHEL for organizations developing open source software and for individual developers with up to 16 virtual or physical systems.