Re: [tlug] Upgrading from CentOS 7

[Brian Clemens <brian@example.com>]

On Mar 9, 2025, at 20:11, Scott Robbins <srobb@example.com> wrote:
As far as I've seen, so far, there's little to choose between them, they're

both well supported. I *vaguely* remember that Alma is now going to be API
compatible with RH, vs bit for bit, while I *think* Rocky is still trying
for bit to bit.

Correct, Rocky Linux has maintained the 1:1 “bug for bug” compatibility. This is part of the reason why Rocky Linux generally receives official support where Alma doesn’t (for example NVIDIA https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html, Intel https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/system-requirements/oneapi-hpc-toolkit/2025.html). This support factors into why Rocky Linux receives much wider usage in general (https://rocky-stats.tiuxo.com/auto.html). I’m obviously biased here, but these are objective observations.

Less objectively, the Alma project has some “bad smells”, like deanonymizing users for marketing (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LtMQa5u9o1yAb0qllBrCIRyfFK1fvPRDMh3I179D_8Q/edit, “New list of potential AlmaLinux users. Out of curiosity we pulled RDNS info for the IPs who are updating on using our mirrors”). Deanonymizing users would be grounds for expulsion from the Rocky Linux project. Catch me at a nomikai for more ;-)

Also as RHEL10 is only using Wayland, the only available desktop at
present, (though it is Beta at the moment) is Gnome. However, one can
install labwc (a Wayland variant, very like openbox) and the alcritty
terminal, using the install instructions from their respective github
sites.

KDE, Sway, etc are already available in EPEL10.

--
Brian Clemens
Founder and Vice President, Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation
Board Vice Chair, Linux Professional Institute

Open Source Program Administrator, CIQ