CloudLinux plans to launch this quarter to replace CentOS
After Red Hat stated that it would stop maintaining the stable version of CentOS. The CloudLinux team has announced that it will build a stable version of the CentOS community branch. The new project is temporarily named Lenix; and plans to invest one million US dollars each year. Now, this project has a new name, AlmaLinux, and has a more specific development plan.
According to the official explanation, the word Alma in AlmaLinux comes from Latin, meaning “soul”. In order to commemorate the unremitting efforts of the Linux community, CloudLinux decided to choose AlmaLinux as the new name of the project. AlmaLinux will become a free, open-source, community-driven, 1:1 binary compatible branch of RHEL 8 and later versions.
For CentOS users, CloudLinux promises that AlmaLinux will provide an uninterrupted way to convert existing CentOS servers with absolutely zero downtime or the need to reinstall anything. The company even claims that users will be able to migrate the entire CentOS server with one command without having to reinstall or restart.
Cloud Linux CEO and founder Igor Seletskiy said that the demise of the stable version of CentOS has left a big gap in the Linux community, prompting CloudLinux to step in and launch an alternative to CentOS. For CloudLinux, an obvious move is to embrace the Linux community. AlmaLinux will be professionally supported and built by CloudLinux but will be owned and managed by the community. Igor Seletskiy said that they intend to provide this permanent free Linux distribution this quarter.
