AlmaLinux Reviews

My main use case for AlmaLinux is to set up many machines on AlmaLinux for another application for our organization. I mainly use AlmaLinux to configure and manage multiple machines and to run applications for our system. For example, I have to set up an AlmaLinux server to host a web application stack using Nginx, PHP, and a PostgreSQL database, which support our internal services and APIs.

In my experience, the best features AlmaLinux offers are the stability and enterprise-grade stability, long-term support, broad software compatibility, predictable and secure updates, easy migration from CentOS, and being free and open source and well-suited for automation and DevOps. Because AlmaLinux is binary compatible with Red Hat, it provides a very stable and reliable operating system suitable for production environments.

AlmaLinux has impacted our organization positively by providing a stable and reliable enterprise Linux platform without licensing cost. It has allowed me to replace CentOS and avoid expensive commercial subscriptions while maintaining full compatibility with Red Hat-based applications. As a result, we have reduced operating costs, especially for server infrastructure, while keeping a high level of security, performance, and long-term support.

AlmaLinux is already a very solid and reliable operating system, but it could be improved in a few areas. For example, more extensive official documentation and practical case use examples would help new users adopt it more quickly. Faster availability of certain packages or clear communication around the release timeline could further improve the user experience. Enhanced tooling or GUIs for in-place major version upgrades would also be beneficial for organizations managing large infrastructures.

I have been using AlmaLinux for one year.

In my experience, AlmaLinux is very stable.

AlmaLinux's scalability is impressive. It is very scalable and performs well both on small deployments and large-scale infrastructure with many servers. I have been able to add new machines easily without change to our architecture or processes.

The customer support for AlmaLinux is good.

I had to switch to AlmaLinux because of the cost of the subscription manager.

My experience with AlmaLinux in terms of pricing, installation cost, and license has been very positive because AlmaLinux is free and open source with no licensing or subscription fees, which significantly reduced our operating cost in comparison to commercial enterprise Linux distributions.

The most immediate benefit has been the elimination of licensing and subscription fees compared to commercial enterprise Linux distributions or Windows.

Before choosing AlmaLinux, I evaluated other options including Debian, specifically Debian 12.

My advice to others looking into using AlmaLinux is that I want to continue using it for the future infrastructure. I would rate this review as a 9.

Hybrid Cloud

I use AlmaLinux to create simulations, Monte Carlo simulations using C++, and for that I need to use the terminal and put a lot of different jobs to process the code.

AlmaLinux is a pretty fast software for handling those simulations and managing multiple jobs. I can process my code and my simulation much faster than with Windows. AlmaLinux is good to work on folders using the terminal, and if I can change something inside the operational system, I have the ability to do that.

I prefer AlmaLinux because it is free and open. I can change anything in AlmaLinux if I want to. If I need to modify code, multithread, or other elements, I can do that with the flexibility that AlmaLinux offers.

With AlmaLinux, I can use the CERN infrastructure. I can use the server from CERN, and CERN has used AlmaLinux since 2024. They installed it recently. It is fast, and Linux is better for coding in C++, Python, and other languages. If you need to manage data, it is considerably better. If I need to process code, AlmaLinux will be two times faster than Windows, for example, which is a specific outcome since switching.

AlmaLinux is a pretty fast software for handling those simulations and managing multiple jobs. I can process my code and my simulation much faster than with Windows. AlmaLinux is good to work on folders using the terminal, and if I can change something inside the operational system, I have the ability to do that.

I prefer AlmaLinux because it is free and open. I can change anything in AlmaLinux if I want to.

AlmaLinux could have more software options. For example, if I need some software from Windows or something similar, it is missing some tools.

I would say you cannot assume AlmaLinux is so similar to Ubuntu. If you use Ubuntu, you can find some difficulties using AlmaLinux.

I have been working in my current field since 2021.

AlmaLinux is stable.

The scalability of AlmaLinux is good.

I worked with AlmaLinux and shared it with a lot of people. The customer support was good.

I did not use the customer support myself, but I have a friend who used it and he said it is an eight.

I did not use a different solution before choosing AlmaLinux.

I just use AlmaLinux for science, and science does not aim toward money, so I have not seen a return on investment.

I did not take the decision. I just used AlmaLinux because CERN was using the server.

I just use AlmaLinux for science, and science does not aim toward money, so I have not seen a return on investment.

In AlmaLinux, I do not have experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing.

I did not use a different solution before choosing AlmaLinux.

I do not understand about AI capabilities when I relate this to AlmaLinux governance and security.

I do not know about the accuracy and reliability of AlmaLinux output.

I do not think there are any improvements needed for AlmaLinux that I have not mentioned yet.

I did not take the decision. I just used AlmaLinux because CERN was using the server.

I would rate this review an eight out of ten.

Private Cloud

Other

AlmaLinux is used for web hosting and control panels, enterprise production servers, cloud and containerization, regulatory industries, and edge computing.

AlmaLinux serves as a replacement for CentOS in cPanel, Plesk, and DirectAdmin environments, and it performs excellently for MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, LAMP stacks, and ERP software. It is also beneficial for cloud and containerization, such as virtualized infrastructure and cloud-native applications.

AlmaLinux has positively impacted my organization by providing improvements such as no licensing cost, enabling us to focus more on updates related to RHEL. We are seeing very good results in Linux server profiles primarily due to the updates we are implementing in development and R&D performance.

Since using AlmaLinux, I have noticed time and cost savings because it has no licensing cost, which decreases budgets, and its strong performance and predictable updates allow us to update servers in a timely manner, limiting issues related to infrastructure maintenance.

The benefits and features of AlmaLinux include no licensing cost, a smooth migration from CentOS, fast predictable updates, and strong performance.

These features help my team by following Red Hat release cycles for infrastructure maintenance, which makes scheduling maintenance easier after a RHEL release cycle, and it also helps with CIS benchmark compliance.

AlmaLinux could be improved by addressing the slow adoption of new software and the dependency on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

I would like to see enhancements in stability and the speed at which newer software versions of the kernel are included, as changes made by RHEL development could affect AlmaLinux development, although it is community-governed.

I have been using AlmaLinux for the last five to six years.

AlmaLinux is very stable in my experience.

AlmaLinux's scalability is very good because the predictable updates ensure there are no issues from that point of view.

I have reached out to customer support for some reasons, and my experience was very good.

Previously, I was using RHEL and now exclusively use AlmaLinux.

I have seen a return on investment through significant time and money savings.

I have no licensing cost, which means there is no burden related to licensing, and the server and budget management is handled by the sales and accounts teams.

Before choosing AlmaLinux, I evaluated CentOS and Ubuntu.

For others looking into using AlmaLinux, I would advise that if you are worried about licenses and migration from CentOS and looking to optimize some performance, you can go with AlmaLinux.

I would rate this solution a 9.

On-premises

Other

My main use case for AlmaLinux is to use it for our servers, maintaining it as the backbone of our infrastructure, such as the data centers for our system, our web server, our application server, and everything else we do, making it the backbone of our system and infrastructure architecture. We use AlmaLinux for our business case.

The best features AlmaLinux offers focus on enterprise service, such as a server engine for our database, as well as compatibility with other external environments, being useful for Red Hat and CentOS, and very ideal for our company, where we also have DevOps, making it the backbone of infrastructure for the CI/CD pipeline and Docker deployment and everything else, plus security, as we use it for firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and monitoring services such as Prometheus and Grafana. We specifically use AlmaLinux because of its stability, its binary compatibility with RHEL, and the additional promotions for everything else.

The most valuable feature I find in AlmaLinux is the binary compatibility with RHEL and the long-term stability, which makes it a predictable, rock-solid system behavior, while also having small and safe packaging for subsystems or systems that run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It is also very useful for long-term projects as a company's software for release, with a huge ecosystem, which is why I appreciate it so much, along with the security, as it offers a stable kernel API with timely security patches. The tooling stability for DevOps is also significant, allowing easy use of infrastructure as code with Ansible or scripting playbooks that remain valid for years, making it especially important for the CI/CD pipelines.

AlmaLinux has positively impacted my organization by being the backbone of our system, which is vital for our revenue as the backbone of our data center.

I am not certain how AlmaLinux can be improved since we simply use it and do not face any security issues.

If AlmaLinux could provide ten to twenty years of fixes, that would be an improvement because I do not want to update the system all the time, as it becomes more challenging for me as a system administrator to track all the patches and everything I should patch on the system. If it could remain very stable, I would appreciate that consistently.

I have been using AlmaLinux for about five years, from two thousand eighteen until now.

The positive outcomes I have seen with AlmaLinux include very few system failures, where updates do not randomly break our servers due to the configuration and binary compatibility. Systems can run for months or years without rebooting, which is ideal for production, laboratories, and research, as I use it heavily in my research on decarbonization and carbon footprint in the company, making it very ideal for production and laboratory research, as we look for safe operating system migration and better automation possibilities with tools such as Ansible and Terraform for configuration, which behaves consistently.

Its security is another highlight, providing minimal disruptions, timely security patches, bug fixes, and a reduced attack surface.

My advice for others looking into using AlmaLinux is to prioritize its stability, reliability, predictable behavior, long-term support, and brand compatibility, along with careful planning, automation, documentation, and understanding that security Linux should not be disabled, as SELinux restricts what a user can do, keeping the major security advantages intact. I would rate this product nine out of ten.

On-premises

Other

AlmaLinux is used as a DHCP server. I installed DNSmasq service on AlmaLinux and use it for many tasks and services such as Kaspersky EDR.

AlmaLinux is easy to use as a VM and with containers.

We saved approximately 70% of our budget with AlmaLinux, and the system is stable and reliable.

AlmaLinux has a firewall that performs well for security. AlmaLinux is a reliable and stable version of Linux. It is fast and does not require significant resources when using AlmaLinux as a VM and with containers.

AlmaLinux could be improved by enhancing security and increasing speed.

I have used AlmaLinux for five years.

AlmaLinux is a reliable and stable version of Linux. At this time, AlmaLinux is performing well. AlmaLinux is stable and reliable.

AlmaLinux is easy to scale in terms of resources and capacities.

I did not switch to AlmaLinux from a different solution.

We saved approximately 70% of our budget with AlmaLinux, and the system is stable and reliable.

The billing with AlmaLinux is very low, and the manager is very satisfied.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing AlmaLinux.

The experience with AlmaLinux pricing, setup cost, and licensing was good. I suggest others use AlmaLinux and work with it.

On-premises

I have been using AlmaLinux in my organization for about two years. My main use case for AlmaLinux in my company is hardening and customizing Kickstart files to have a fully customized OS for the client. A concrete example of how I customize these Kickstart files with AlmaLinux to meet the needs of a particular client is that I modify the Kickstart file by adding lines to remove applications and to automate the download and installation of certain other applications on AlmaLinux, so that as soon as it is deployed, the applications are already installed.

AlmaLinux has had a positive impact on my organization because the fact that we can customize and offer clients system kernels that correspond perfectly to them, without them needing to go back over them afterward, has greatly satisfied them, and they were very happy.

This impact has translated into time savings for my organization because once I master customization, I know what to change and modify. Then I regenerate the kernel and then redeploy, and it goes quite fast. This saves time and allows me to be much more efficient. Of course, I first go through a testing phase before redeploying at the clients'.

In my opinion, the best features that AlmaLinux offers are the fact that I can customize it using the Kickstart files and have very comprehensive documentation on the vendor's website that allows me precisely to completely customize it the way I want.

In my opinion, AlmaLinux is already very good, so I do not know if it is really necessary to improve something that already runs very well, because better is the enemy of good.

I have been working in my current field for about ten years.

AlmaLinux seems very stable for my use cases.

Regarding the scalability of AlmaLinux, I find that for now, I have not had the opportunity to evaluate scalability, but I think that if I had to do it, I would not be disappointed; I would be very satisfied compared to everything I have already seen with AlmaLinux. For me, it is a mark of quality.

I rate AlmaLinux's customer support as good because for now, I have not yet had the opportunity to deal with customer support, because everything I have had to do has worked very well. When it did not necessarily work the first time, it was enough to just reread the documentation properly with a clear head and then the problem was resolved.

Before choosing AlmaLinux, I evaluated other solutions, specifically we were on Red Hat 7, and given the security vulnerabilities and the obsolescence of the old distribution, the team leader decided to move us to AlmaLinux.

I have seen a return on investment thanks to AlmaLinux, specifically time savings, but I do not have access to economic indicators, since I only handle the system side; it is more the people on the commercial side who could provide such indicators.

My advice to other professionals who are considering using AlmaLinux is to go for it without asking themselves questions, because all the necessary support is there to start from scratch and manage to do great things with it. Tutorials, documentation, and forums are all available and represent a very good thing. I rate this review as a nine out of ten.

On-premises

My main use case for AlmaLinux is that we are migrating all our infrastructure from various Linux flavors to a single operating system, which will be AlmaLinux, whether it is Docker images or virtual machines.

We as a base team who works on the OS part are migrating from the Amazon Linux 2 OS to AlmaLinux as part of our migration, and we are creating our custom OS image, which will be supplied to all our teams for their applications to be migrated. We are migrating from AL2 to AlmaLinux, and we migrated our Chef cookbooks, which were AL2 dependent, to AlmaLinux. We migrated our image build pipelines and our scripts, which were shell scripts, and they will be compatible with AlmaLinux.

Whatever infrastructure we have, we will be migrating that to AlmaLinux, and we are not targeting it for a specific use case. There are definitely advantages with the support from TuxCare that we are targeting, but we are not picking this up for a particular application.

The best features AlmaLinux offers include its support, which is outstanding from TuxCare, as we are getting the fixes and patch sets for the OS very fast.

When I mention the support from TuxCare, their support stands out because on multiple occasions during our migration processes, we faced blockades where some of the kernel tuning parts or the OS configurations were difficult to migrate or understand for our teams, and they helped promptly. We were on the call immediately the next day, and their engineers were helping us to fix those issues. Currently, we also have an active channel, and they are promptly replying to the support tickets whenever we have issues.

AlmaLinux has positively impacted my organization, and the impact has just started. We have implemented a lot of new things with AlmaLinux, and their integration with KernelCare is very strong, which has helped us to patch and keep the environment compliant with the FedRAMP and PCI compliances.

AlmaLinux has helped with FedRAMP and PCI compliance. For example, the vulnerability scan results that we need to share with the FedRAMP have SLAs to the vulnerabilities, and we have to patch them within the SLA timelines, which are promptly fixed with the help of KernelCare or the custom supported OS packages from the TuxCare repositories. The updates are promptly available.

I am not able to answer how AlmaLinux can be improved right now; perhaps I will be able to after some time of use. I don't think there are any improvements needed for AlmaLinux that I haven't mentioned yet.

I have been using AlmaLinux for the last one and a half or about two years.

The best features AlmaLinux offers include its support, which is outstanding from TuxCare, as we are getting the fixes and patch sets for the OS very fast.

When I mention the support from TuxCare, their support stands out because on multiple occasions during our migration processes, we faced blockades where some of the kernel tuning parts or the OS configurations were difficult to migrate or understand for our teams, and they helped promptly. We were on the call immediately the next day, and their engineers were helping us to fix those issues. Currently, we also have an active channel, and they are promptly replying to the support tickets whenever we have issues.

AlmaLinux is deployed in our organization in the public cloud, specifically on AWS and GCP. We use AWS most for AlmaLinux. I purchased AlmaLinux through the AWS Marketplace.

The advice I would give to others looking into using AlmaLinux is that it is a good OS with the latest standards, and we are using the minimal image, which is very lightweight for the servers. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I have been using AlmaLinux for the last 2.5 years. In my organization, we use a Red Hat Enterprise version, but I required Red Hat alternatives to work in my home setup, which is why I chose AlmaLinux. I have hosted one site locally as well as in AWS, and during that time I have hosted that site on AlmaLinux. I deployed one EC2 instance using AlmaLinux OS, and on that OS, I set up that website.

AlmaLinux provides the DNF command to install packages, making it very easy to install any package. The patching and security patches are very reliable in my environment.

Before AlmaLinux, I used a CentOS system. In CentOS, if you want to install any packages, you have to install that package using the RPM command, which only installs a specific package. With AlmaLinux using DNF, it installs the whole packages with their dependencies, which is a bit easier.

Stability is good in AWS as well as when I installed it on VirtualBox, so stability and performance are very good. It uses minimum resources while providing high performance.

AlmaLinux does not require any specific additions from my side; it only requires strong support as Red Hat provides. This means the organization can make and afford to use it.

To improve AlmaLinux, some commands could be automated, such as expanding the repository of AlmaLinux or improving the shell experience.

There is not vast information about AlmaLinux on Google or the internet, so more information is required about how it works, how it can be used for hosting sites, and how to optimize performance. This documentation is needed on the internet.

I have been working for the last 2.5 years as a system engineer.

AlmaLinux is stable.

The scalability of AlmaLinux is good.

I had a good experience with the customer support team of AlmaLinux.

I was using CentOS, but after CentOS support was lost, I switched to AlmaLinux.

I do not have specific metrics to share regarding return on investment, but it is a cost-effective OS.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is good.

I did not evaluate other options before choosing AlmaLinux.

Computing power could be added while executing the commands to illustrate positive outcomes, but there are no specific metrics available at this time. Two points were deducted only for the support aspect. Any Linux distribution can be shifted to AlmaLinux, as it is very good to use and easy to manage. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

On-premises

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I use AlmaLinux as the base operating system for all of our Linux servers. Our environment includes use cases that range from a load balancer on the NGINX platform to our monitoring software, Check Point, on AlmaLinux. We also run Microsoft SQL Server on AlmaLinux.

The most valuable features of AlmaLinux are its long-term support, which is a significant advantage as CentOS lacks it. AlmaLinux has a predictable update cycle unlike Fedora and the frequent updates of CentOS from Red Hat. Additionally, AlmaLinux offers excellent stability.

It is hard to say what needs improvement because I am on the operations side and focus on installing servers and running our software.

I have had experience with AlmaLinux for about five years.

The stability is excellent. So far, I have not experienced any issues with AlmaLinux, apart from problems related to our own software, which is a separate story.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the scalability as nine.

I have not used AlmaLinux support at all. I rely on the extensive documentation available online and various forums. Additionally, my team has several individuals who are very familiar with AlmaLinux, and we have been managing well on our own.

Positive

I previously used CentOS but switched to AlmaLinux when CentOS started having issues.

The initial setup is pretty much straightforward. I use automation tools such as Ansible for the installation process, making deployment efficient regardless of whether it's AWS or on-site.

I use Ansible to install any servers in my environment.

AlmaLinux is free of charge, which is why I chose this distribution. It offers an alternative to Red Hat, which is free only without support and updates. AlmaLinux provides free updates and security, unlike Red Hat, where support must be purchased separately.

I previously used CentOS before switching to AlmaLinux.

Overall, I would rate AlmaLinux a ten. I would recommend AlmaLinux because it is a stable, simple operating system with a straightforward installation process that I have found reliable so far without any glitches. I rate the overall solution ten out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

Other

My main use cases for AlmaLinux include running Apache and sub-applications for our web application. I also use it for long-term support capabilities. I use it for testing, production servers, VMs, and other infrastructure needs. I use AlmaLinux for production, UAT, and test environments, as well as for cloud containerization.

AlmaLinux helps with these use cases by allowing me to use the virtual environment for hosting our web application using Apache services. I use it for both testing and production environments. It is compatible because it is robust and has efficient storage for application deployment.

Different types of developers in my organization use AlmaLinux for building applications. We use AlmaLinux rather than Windows subsystem for our projects, testing, UAT, and production work.

AlmaLinux's open-source nature stands out the most for my team. We do not directly use CentOS or Windows servers. AlmaLinux is compatible with our application for testing purposes. We perform stage-to-stage checking, updating, and patching of applications for security reasons and assessment testing. It is suitable for our environment.

AlmaLinux is supported on high-performance computing, which I find valuable for my main use cases.

The GUI features are excellent, and I find both the GUI features and console access valuable about AlmaLinux.

AlmaLinux has positively impacted our organization.

We are using the web application in our on-premises environment. It is faster for deployment and comfortable for our on-premises environment, allowing us to handle and manage it smoothly.

I do not wish to add anything regarding needed improvements.

I have been using AlmaLinux for five years.

AlmaLinux is better than other Linux flavors, and I recommend it for maintaining systems. To make it better, utilize the GUI so that you can use it more effectively for your computers. I have given this product a rating of eight out of ten.

On-premises

Other