New versions of the distributions AlmaLinux 8.9 and Rocky Linux 8.9 have been released. These versions are in sync with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9 and include all the proposed changes in this release. The aim of these 8.x versions is to provide a free RHEL-based distribution that can replace CentOS 8, which had its support discontinued at the end of 2021, earlier than originally planned.
The new versions of Rocky Linux 8.9 are available for x86-64 and aarch64 architectures, while the new versions of AlmaLinux 8.9 are available for x86_64, ARM64, S390X, and PPC64le architectures. These distributions are binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be used as replacements for RHEL 8.9 and CentOS 8 Stream.
Both Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux have made changes to eliminate any reference to the Red Hat branding, similar to what was done in the classic CentOS. Additionally, the AlmaLinux project supports the Synergy repository, which provides packages for installing the Pantheon user environment from Elementary OS. The Rocky Linux project has prepared the plus repository, which includes the Open-vm-tools package, as well as repositories such as nfv (Network Functions Virtualization) with packages for virtualizing networks, rt with real-time working packages, highavilability for creating fault-resistant systems, and resilientstorage with packages for creating fault-resistant storages.