CloudLinux-backed RHEL rebuild. Joined with Rocky as one of two CentOS successors that survived.
AlmaLinux is a community-owned enterprise Linux distribution that provides ABI (Application Binary Interface) compatibility with RHEL. It is supported through 2029 and is widely used in hosting, cloud, and enterprise server environments. The distribution rebuilds thousands of RHEL packages from a combination of CentOS Stream, Red Hat Universal Base Images (UBI), and upstream sources.
While Gregory Kurtzer was rallying the community around Rocky Linux with the power of founder mythology, CloudLinux was already doing the math. As a company that had been building RHEL-based products for years, they understood the enterprise Linux ecosystem intimately. On January 14, 2021 — barely a month after Red Hat's CentOS bombshell — CloudLinux announced Project Lenix, which would become AlmaLinux. The name comes from the Latin word for 'soul,' which is fitting for a project born from the death of CentOS.
CloudLinux's CEO Igor Seletskiy committed $1 million per year in funding and pledged to transfer governance to an independent foundation. The first beta landed on February 1, 2021, and the first stable release shipped on March 30, 2021 — beating Rocky Linux to market by nearly three months. Speed was AlmaLinux's superpower: they had the existing infrastructure and expertise from building CloudLinux OS.
True to their word, CloudLinux established the AlmaLinux OS Foundation as a 501(c)(6) non-profit and began transferring control. In September 2022, the foundation held its first community election, and Seletskiy stepped down as board chair to prove the project's independence. Benny Vasquez took over as chair, becoming the public face of AlmaLinux's community governance.
The real test came in June 2023 when Red Hat restricted public access to RHEL source code. AlmaLinux made a pragmatic pivot: instead of chasing 1:1 binary compatibility with RHEL (which was becoming legally fraught), they shifted to Application Binary Interface (ABI) compatibility. Vasquez explained that 99% of packages would still match RHEL, but they'd source code from CentOS Stream, UBI images, and upstream projects rather than RHEL source RPMs directly. It was a smart strategic move that differentiated AlmaLinux from Rocky's more confrontational approach.
Red Hat announces CentOS 8 EOL
CloudLinux announces Project Lenix (AlmaLinux)
AlmaLinux first beta released
AlmaLinux OS 8.3 first stable release; AlmaLinux OS Foundation established as 501(c)(6)
First community board election; Igor Seletskiy steps down as chair
Benny Vasquez elected as board chair
Red Hat restricts RHEL source code access
AlmaLinux pivots from 1:1 RHEL compatibility to ABI compatibility
AlmaLinux proved that a corporate-backed open source project can successfully transition to genuine community governance. CloudLinux's willingness to fund the project while ceding control became a model for how companies can sponsor community distributions without capturing them. The project's pivot to ABI compatibility in 2023 was influential, showing that RHEL compatibility doesn't require exact binary reproduction.
Together with Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux absorbed the majority of CentOS migrations and ensured continuity for enterprise workloads. The two projects serve slightly different audiences — AlmaLinux appeals more to organizations that value pragmatic corporate backing, while Rocky draws those who prioritize community-first governance.