Why AlmaLinux Is the Ideal CentOS Replacement and How to Install It

AlmaLinux arrives at the right time

After Red Hat announced the shift from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream, many users were upset; CloudLinux responded by creating AlmaLinux, a free, community‑driven, binary‑compatible RHEL 8.x fork that will be supported at least until 2029.

The name “Alma” comes from the Latin word for “soul,” honoring the Linux community’s contributions.

How AlmaLinux fills the CentOS void

AlmaLinux is a community RHEL clone that receives $1 million annual sponsorship from CloudLinux and aims to provide a stable, production‑ready alternative to the discontinued CentOS stable releases.

Key features:

Easy migration from CentOS, even for large servers.

Fedora‑like distribution based on an exact RHEL clone.

1:1 production‑ready compatibility with RHEL.

Predictable stability matching RHEL release cycles.

Community contributions are needed for testing, documentation, support, and roadmap planning.

AlmaLinux 8.3 Beta installation guide

Three ISO images are provided: AlmaLinux-8.3-beta-1-x86_64-boot.iso – network install CD, downloads packages from the Internet. AlmaLinux-8.3-beta-1-x86_64-minimal.iso – minimal self‑contained DVD for offline installation. AlmaLinux-8.3-beta-1-x86_64-dvd1.iso – full DVD with most packages; use only if offline installation is required.

Download the preferred ISO and verify its checksum. For the boot ISO, use the repository

https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/8.3-beta/BaseOS/x86_64/kickstart/

as the installation source. If installing a non‑minimal environment, add the AppStream repository

https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/8.3-beta/AppStream/x86_64/os/

. The minimal and DVD images do not require additional repositories.

To create a USB installer, follow the standard USB‑key creation steps (illustrated in the accompanying image).

Known issues in the beta:

The libreport/abrt package is not yet integrated with the bugs.almalinux.org tracker, requiring manual crash report submission.

Perl 5.30 module support is incomplete and will be finished in the stable release.

Latest versions of the “jmc” and “maven” modules are missing and will be added later.

The “satellite-5-client” module resides in the BaseOS repository instead of AppStream.

The beta does not support Secure Boot.

Debuginfo repository is empty and will be populated shortly after the beta release.

CloudLinux will host a live Q&A webinar on February 10 at 9 AM PT to address post‑beta issues.

Official website: https://almalinux.org/ GitHub: https://github.com/AlmaLinux/