AlmaLinux OS Foundation at ATO
By benny Vasquez, Chair of the Board, AlmaLinux OS Foundation
The AlmaLinux OS Foundation is extremely excited to be back at All Things Open for a third year, and we are grateful for the warm welcome the ATO crowd gives us every year.
What is AlmaLinux?
In case you haven’t heard of us: AlmaLinux OS is an enterprise Linux operating system that is used across the globe for enterprise and hobbyist needs alike. We got our start as a downstream rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but earlier this year we shifted to just maintaining compatibility with RHEL, opening up many new and exciting doors. With over 500,000 servers calling out to one of our 300+ geo-located mirrors every night, the adoption of AlmaLinux since our inception just over 2.5 years ago has both humbled and ignited us, and has led to support for a number of platforms.
As users of the historic CentOS Linux, we have been working diligently to solve the problems and pain points that we all experienced, and one way we’ve done that is with in-place major version upgrades with Project ELevate. In August of this year, we also introduced the Synergy repo that allows us to quickly release packages that our community wants access to, ahead of RHEL. It isn’t a replacement for EPEL, but a compliment for, and is usable by anyone in the enterprise linux ecosystem. We also announced in September that one of our Platinum sponsors, CloudLinux, helped us achieve FIPS compliance for AlmaLinux OS 9.2.
How can I get involved?
2024 is going to be an exciting year for the enterprise linux community, as both CentOS 7 Linux and CentOS 8 Stream both reach end of life, so everything we’ll be doing in the next year will be focused on supporting our community through that transition. The non-profit steward of the operating system, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, will be starting the year by expanding the board to bring in additional insights and expertise, as well as standing up a committee specifically around our technical decisions.
If you want to get involved, there are tons of ways to do it! The easiest way is to help us spread the word. Follow us on your favorite social media site (all linked to at the bottom of this page), or just follow the RSS feed on the blog and share from there. Tell your friends about us, and stop by booth #81 for a pin or a sticker, or check out the swag shop: shop.almalinux.org. If you have some time, we’d love to have you join a SIG! There are a number of groups doing interesting things around AlmaLinux and you’re bound to find something that you can jump into. If you have a couple of dollars, you can back us on GitHub sponsors or on OpenCollective.
If you have more questions, feel free to stop by the AlmaLinux OS booth at #81! While you’re there grab some stickers and swag, and sign up for a credit for AlmaLinux merch at shop.almalinux.org.
The Featured Blog Posts series highlights posts from partners and members of the All Things Open community leading up to ATO 2023.