AlmaLinux OS is an open-source, community-driven project that is built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). AlmaLinux is a completely binary compatible fork of RHEL and it is maintained by AlmaLinux OS Foundation which is a register non-profit.
To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
Colour scheme:green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Wow. This OS is damn fast on my HP 8570w. I was a big fan of Centos 7 that lasted much longer than Windows Systems on my PCs. As a scientific user I am interested in a stable, reliable, fast running system. I can live with some convenience obstacles. But not with buggy systems. IBM decision to terminate Centos and the lack of support for older machines in RHEL 10 was a shock for me. Maybe I can afford Windows. But I want to live sustainable and I am not willing to retire my still excellent old machines. OS Almalinux enabled me to proceed my principle of sustainability.
I cannot comment on long-term stability of AlmaLinux till date because the system is just on air a view weeks. Because of very good experience with Alma 9.6 I gave Alma 10 a trial. There are definitely a lot of pros
+ extremly fast boot time. Alma 9 was already fast in comparision to ubuntu.
+ seems to be enterprise quality as I know from the real Centos
+ x86-64 v2 support - my gorgeous HP machine can run additional 10 years safe! That's alone a reason for installation
+ seems to be fully RHEL, Epel compatible
+ reasonable update cycles as they were with Centos all the years
+ so far everything is running stable and smooth
+ Gnome 47 rocks as well as KDE 6.3
+ very clean and nice boot process without ugly messages during boot process
There are minor issues that could be solved by the Alma-Team easily
- still there is a warning message for deprecated hardware during boot although I installed the x86-64 v2 ISO
- the discover software package management has not to offer many
- LibreOffice, Darktable and Gimp had to be installed via flatpak. No big deal.
So I give this awesome system a 9-Rating. That based on my use case. If you are a typical desktop user there might be better alternatives like Mint that come with software packages and additional install options without a hassle. But for me the long support and enterprise quality is the dealbreaker.
Version: 10.0 Rating: 7 Date: 2025-05-31 Votes: 2
AlmaLinux 9+ – Great for Servers, Less So for Desktops
I’ve tested multiple AlmaLinux 9+ versions on two machines for desktop use: an older AMD-based PC and a newer laptop.
First, the positives: it's great that AlmaLinux offers a free Red Hat–compatible experience. Installation is straightforward and cleaner than RHEL’s own. The system feels stable and well put together. I appreciated the flexibility of choosing between GNOME and KDE desktops.
However, desktop performance has been disappointing regarding graphics and animations:
Old PC: This machine struggles with animations entirely. I had to disable them just to keep the system usable. I did manage to get the AMD driver working once with version 9.1, but from 9.2 onward, no luck—graphics issues persist, and the desktop is barely usable.
New Laptop: All hardware is detected, and the system runs, but desktop animations (on both GNOME and KDE) are visibly laggy.
For desktop environments, Fedora is clearly a better choice. It offers the same ecosystem with much better graphics performance and a more responsive user experience out of the box. AlmaLinux seems better suited for servers or minimal workstation setups, not for general-purpose desktop use.
Rating: 7/10 — Stable and functional, but laggy desktop performance and driver issues hold it back for desktop users.
Version: 9.5 Rating: 9 Date: 2025-01-20 Votes: 7
AlmaLinux 9.5 as a laptop workstation
Installed the 9.4 Xfce Live boot image, ran the installer, upgraded to 9.5. I got XFCE working nicely and was satisfied for a couple weeks until I tried to use Bluetooth. Blueman and other Bluetooth GUIs for XFCE were not in EPEL, compiling Blueman was a fail, bluetoothctl worked, but was a pain as well.
So I did:
dnf groupinstall “Sever with GUI”
systemctl start gdm.service
systemctl enable gdm.service
dnf remove lightdm
dnf remove xfce* (maybe I should have done “dnf group remove XFCE”?)
AlmaLinux 9.5 Gnome on a 4 year old laptop is flawless. No need to mention it is rock solid. I tried CentOS several years ago and it was a real pain to set up for a laptop. Today it is a piece of cake.
My main Gen 13 CPU workstation is Fedora so I wanted something similar for my older gen 10 CPU laptop and something on a different life cycle. I looked at Rocky Linux, but the AlmaLinux community, documents and support seemed more vibrant. Anyway it’s dual boot and I use AlmaLinux (or whatever distro) 99 percent of the time.
To install AlmaLinux with Windows, install Windows first, shrink the big Windows partition in the Windows disk/partition manager to free up space for the Linux install. Install AlmaLinux and the final Grub update will install Windows to the Grub boot menu. It’s a big hassle with Windows Pro bitlocker freaking out everytime Grub updates. Doesn’t seem to be a problem with the new Windows Home encryption. I suppose there is a workaround for Windows Pro.