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Henry Rivera - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5
Jun 17, 2025
Reliable documentation and support streamline deployment and troubleshooting
Pros and Cons
  • "The main positive impact of Amazon Linux on my company has been no interruptions of services, and the public website is up and running, which allows us to monetize with virtually no staff hours for downtime or service interruptions."

    What is our primary use case?

    The main use case for Amazon Linux is hosting websites.

    This is for overall company operations.

    What is most valuable?

    The best features with Amazon Linux include the integration with AWS and other services.

    It is an operating system that AWS manages, and I feel I can trust it regarding the updates without interfering with or interrupting services.

    The performance of Amazon Linux with AWS services is perfectly fine. I use it and change the instance type to give it more resources at times, and for the sandbox, I give it less, and it satisfies what we want.

    Amazon Linux reduces the time it would take for setup or deployment because I rely on the documentation for AWS since it's streamlined, and the commands I need to run are easily accessible whenever I need to look up anything.

    We've used the application load balancers with Amazon Linux, and that's the main one I can think of regarding advanced networking capabilities.

    That feature has definitely helped us enhance the scalability and reliability of our cloud applications by easing administration, as the application load balancer is managed by AWS and ties in with Amazon Certificate Manager, ensuring I do not have to concern myself with scalability and any updates.

    The main positive impact of Amazon Linux on my company has been no interruptions of services.

    The public website is up and running, which allows us to monetize with virtually no staff hours for downtime or service interruptions.

    What needs improvement?

    I cannot say honestly how these features have contributed to my system security and package management processes.

    I try to keep the services and what I use on Amazon Linux very limited to support overall configurations.

    I would love it if Amazon could provide fleet management of their operating system for updates and configuration, as that's an area I would need more attention to.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have dealt with the Amazon Linux product for 10 years.

    Buyer's Guide
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    How are customer service and support?

    I would rate customer service or technical support from Amazon a 10.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I switched to Amazon Linux primarily because I was running my operating systems within AWS, knowing that Amazon would support it and all the documentation was up-to-date.

    We were using CentOS before switching to Amazon Linux.

    Mainly, we used CentOS, which was managed by Red Hat or IBM. Once they changed their upgrade path, it became unviable, so we went with Amazon Linux, which made the most sense in AWS.

    How was the initial setup?

    My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Amazon Linux is straightforward and simple.

    What was our ROI?

    I have seen a return on investment with Amazon Linux.

    What other advice do I have?

    I have experience with RDS with AWS.

    I have experience with Amazon Linux and other Amazon products.

    I have mentioned relevant data points about ease of use and the trust that Amazon provides, as I don't have to concern myself with other Linux distributions.

    I realized those benefits during the actual deployment.

    On a scale of 1-10, I rate Amazon Linux a 10.

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Amazon Web Services (AWS)
    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    Last updated: Jun 17, 2025
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    Head of Infrastructure at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    Top 20
    Jan 20, 2026
    Improved service reliability and performance have supported critical workloads but need more feedback loops
    Pros and Cons
    • "Being able to ship services to our customers efficiently and ensuring service reliability is a key benefit delivered by Amazon Linux."

      What is our primary use case?

      A major use case for Amazon Linux is that it powers both web servers and application servers. As a payment company, we majorly use Amazon Linux to deploy our services. Being able to ship those services to our customers means that the performance of the service is critical to our customers, which speaks to service reliability. Service reliability has been one key thing that Amazon Linux has been able to deliver to us as an organization.

      What is most valuable?

      From the performance perspective, our use case is basically the deployment of services, and using Amazon Linux as the baseline OS has really helped us from the performance perspective compared to our experience with other baseline operating systems we have used in the past.

      The boot time and resource usage have improved with Amazon Linux compared to other baseline operating systems we have used in the past. Resource usage is more efficient with Amazon Linux. Faster boot time and efficient resource usage make Amazon Linux perform better for us.

      Being able to ship services to our customers efficiently and ensuring service reliability is a key benefit delivered by Amazon Linux.

      What needs improvement?

      I believe customer feedback and engagement will help improve the product. From my own standpoint for now, nothing comes to mind. We recently moved to Amazon Linux, but it has been efficient for us. Nothing comes to mind at this time.

      For how long have I used the solution?

      I have been using Amazon Linux for a few years now and it is currently being used at my workplace. We have a couple of services that are being deployed on Amazon Linux.

      What do I think about the stability of the solution?

      Amazon Linux is stable.

      What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

      From the scalability perspective, Amazon Linux has been efficient for us. It has been able to handle the traffic load for us.

      How are customer service and support?

      Customer support generally for AWS has been great, and we have not seen a reason to have any situation with the customer support. On the grand scheme of things, the customer support has been awesome.

      How would you rate customer service and support?

      Negative

      Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

      We evaluated and deployed some services on Ubuntu and some other Linux distributions.

      How was the initial setup?

      Because we set up Amazon Linux on AWS, which I believe is proprietary to the AWS organization, the experience was efficient.

      What was our ROI?

      We have seen a return on investments with that, and we were able as an organization to save something around $8,000 per month. That was really helpful.

      What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

      The pricing is not bad, especially with the Graviton instances, the ARM Graviton instances, which has also really helped us in our organization to basically drop our cloud cost.

      What other advice do I have?

      It has been a great experience with Amazon Linux for us as an organization. My overall review rating for Amazon Linux is 7 out of 10.

      Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

      Hybrid Cloud

      If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

      Amazon Web Services (AWS)
      Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
      Last updated: Jan 20, 2026
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      Buyer's Guide
      Amazon Linux
      January 2026
      Learn what your peers think about Amazon Linux. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
      881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
      Senior Engineer - Cloud and datacenter at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
      Real User
      Top 10
      Jun 27, 2025
      Running containers effectively for many years with excellent security features and pre-installed tools
      Pros and Cons
      • "The main benefits I receive from Amazon Linux are saving time and streamlining some work processes."

        What is our primary use case?

        My use case for Amazon Linux is mostly for running containers.

        I am using SELinux for enhanced security in Amazon Linux, and it is helpful for me.

        What is most valuable?

        I find that the functions or features of Amazon Linux that are most valuable are ones that I haven't specifically mentioned.

        The main benefits I receive from Amazon Linux are saving time and streamlining some work processes.

        I use Python, as Amazon Linux includes some pre-installed libraries and tools such as Python, Ruby, and Node.js.

        What needs improvement?

        In my opinion, for improvement, Amazon Linux could make better integration with third-party vendors, perhaps enhance user experience or lower the price compared to other Linux solutions.

        For the future, it would be great to see Amazon Linux have more wide functionality to work with other systems.

        For how long have I used the solution?

        I have been working with Amazon Linux for eight years.

        What do I think about the stability of the solution?

        I rate the stability of Amazon Linux as a nine.

        What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

        I understand the scalability aspects and I think they are adequate.

        How are customer service and support?

        I would rate the technical support from Amazon Linux as good enough.

        I believe the response time and quality of support could be better, so I see quality as a single point of feedback.

        How would you rate customer service and support?

        Positive

        Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

        I work with both Amazon Linux and Ubuntu because Ubuntu provides more wide functionalities than Amazon Linux.

        How was the initial setup?

        The initial setup for Amazon Linux is straightforward, and I understand it well.

        Which other solutions did I evaluate?

        Regarding the pricing model of Amazon Linux, I think it could be more flexible or a bit cheaper for users, as I find Ubuntu is cheaper than Amazon Linux.

        What other advice do I have?

        I am not using IPv6 and I'm okay with that.

        On a scale of one to ten, I rate Amazon Linux an eight.

        If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

        Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
        Last updated: Jun 27, 2025
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        Linux Support at a tech vendor
        Real User
        Top 20
        Jun 5, 2025
        Extensive support experience and seamless deployment enable efficient troubleshooting
        Pros and Cons
        • "Whenever I deploy solutions on Amazon Linux, I almost never have to worry about the operating system."
        • "I have honestly never had any problems with Amazon Linux, aside from disk space issues."

        What is our primary use case?

        I work with Kubernetes tools. My job is L3 support and I troubleshoot Red Hat-based systems and Kubernetes. Those are my two areas and that is all I do. When a client's system breaks down, it is my job to fix it as much as possible.

        In the last 12 months, I have been troubleshooting systems and training in Kubernetes.

        I deploy applications atop it. I mostly use it as a server for various DevOps concerns. For example, I have a Kubernetes server running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ansible server running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is a DevOps pipeline that is fed by these separate servers.

        I just duplicate installations of my clients' machines in order to troubleshoot. The idea is that I am presented with a problem, a broken system. If I can clone it, I do and then I try to fix it locally on my own machine before I present the solution back to the client. It varies slightly, depending on what the clients are using it for. In my very last case, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, there were etcd clusters running on an Ubuntu machine managing a Patroni installation. I tried to set that up on my own systems and started troubleshooting from there.

        What is most valuable?

        Red Hat is definitely the reason why we go for Linux and why we choose it above Ubuntu. The idea is security and the inbuilt security features. We don't have separate security experts here, so we configure it ourselves. We choose those systems that already have a lot of security features. Red Hat SE Linux is something we appreciate.

        Regarding the most valuable features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, flexibility is the biggest reason. The fact that I can easily manage kernel parameters is a testament to the flexibility of the operating system, and that is why we use it on virtually all our servers.

        There are two reasons why I always turn to either Amazon Linux or Ubuntu. My preference for Amazon Linux is because of its SE Linux implementations. My preference for Linux entirely is because of its customizable nature. It is flexible and I can change it to fit whatever my applications' needs are.

        What needs improvement?

        I have been experimenting with new terminals, and I think that the default terminals for Linux machines in general could be improved. For example, Alacritty. I have been using these things extensively now, so they could do a good job improving their terminals.

        For how long have I used the solution?

        I have been using the solution for about three years.

        What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

        I have found it to be the most scalable solution and would rate it an 8.

        How was the initial setup?

        I have been involved in setting it up from scratch in respect to fixing other peoples' systems, but never for my own use.

        The setup was straightforward. I really appreciate how they make it easy to install Kubernetes. I find working with Kubernetes in the cloud easier than working with it on-prem, simply because of swap issues. I appreciate how easy it is to use Amazon Linux as compared to on-prem systems.

        What other advice do I have?

        I deploy applications atop it. I mostly use it as a server for various DevOps concerns. For example, I have a Kubernetes server running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ansible server running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is a DevOps pipeline that is fed by these separate servers.

        We always enable Amazon Linux. We don't switch it off and we do not put it in permissive mode. Where there are issues regarding permissions that Amazon Linux has enforced, we fix them and make it work. SE Linux is enforced on our machines.

        I have configured failover for clients using blue-green deployments, where we have identical servers running. That is how we implemented manual failover. They have identical systems running and when one stops working, for any reason, while we are fixing it, these clients remain live.

        Whenever I deploy solutions on Amazon Linux, I almost never have to worry about the operating system. Whenever I have problems, it is from the application itself. I have honestly never had any problems with Amazon Linux, aside from disk space issues. But no problems with the operating system itself.

        I work as a Linux Administrator, specifically in Linux Support.

        I rate Amazon Linux a 9 out of 10.

        Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

        Public Cloud

        If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

        Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. msp
        Last updated: Jun 5, 2025
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