The latest distribution release from AlmaLinux, version 10.2, has been presented, along with an update to the previous branch – AlmaLinux 9.8. These releases are in sync with Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 9.8 and 10.2, incorporating all the changes made in these releases. Installation images have been prepared for various architectures including x86_64_v3, x86_64_v2, ARM64, ppc64le, and s390x in the form of boot (1 GB), minimal (1.6 GB), and full images (10 GB). Live builds featuring GNOME, KDE, MATE, and Xfce will also be generated, along with images tailored for Raspberry Pi boards, containers, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and cloud platforms.
AlmaLinux aims to be binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, serving as a suitable replacement for RHEL 10.2 and CentOS 10 Stream. In addition to rebranding and removing RHEL-specific packages in AlmaLinux 10.2, there are some notable differences from RHEL 10.2. Firstly, a repository of packages compiled for the i686 architecture has been published, as well as container images in Docker format for 32-bit x86 systems. Btrfs file system support has been reintroduced, enabling the marking of drives using Btrfs in the installer, and ensuring the installation of the btrfs.ko kernel module and the btrfs-progs set of utilities.
Furthermore, the CRB (CodeReady Builder) package repository is enabled by default in AlmaLinux 10.2, offering a selection of packages not included by default in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. These packages include developer applications, additional libraries and bindings, debug data, documentation, header files, static builds, and code examples. The CRB also contains libraries used as dependencies in packages from the EPEL repository.