When Red Hat[1], CentOS[2]'s Linux parent company, announced it was "shifting focus from CentOS Linux[3], the rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)[4], to CentOS Stream[5], which tracks just ahead of a current RHEL release," the move vexed many CentOS users[6]. As a result, CentOS co-founder, Gregory Kurtzer, announced he'd create his own RHEL clone and CentOS replacement: Rocky Linux[7]. Then, on Rocky's heels, commercial CentOS distributor CloudLinux[8] announced it would create its own new CentOS clone, Lenix[9]. Now, under a new name, AlmaLinux OS[10] is here with its first release.
CloudLinux -- which was founded in 2009 to provide a customized, high-performance, lightweight RHEL/CentOS server clone for multitenancy web and server hosting companies -- came ready to deliver. The new free AlmaLinux is now stable and ready for production workloads.
The company also announced the formation of a non-profit organization: AlmaLinux Open Source Foundation[11]. This group will take over managing the AlmaLinux project going forward. CloudLinux has committed a $1 million annual endowment[12] to support the project.
Jack Aboutboul, former Red Hat and Fedora[13] engineer and architect, will be AlmaLinux's community manager. Altogether, Aboutboul brings over 20 years of experience in open-source communities as a participant, manager, and evangelist.
He'll be helped by the AlmaLinux governing board. Currently, this includes Jesse Asklund, global head of customer experience for WebPros at cPanel[14]; Simon Phipps, open-source advocate and a former president of the Open Source Initiative (OSI)[15]; Igor Seletskiy, CloudLinux CEO; and Eugene Zamriy, CloudLinux director of release engineering at. Two additional members of the governing