#16 of 16 enterprise Linux distributions · Updated October 2026
Anolis OS review 2026
Anolis OS (OpenAnolis) · Sponsor-led innovator
Anolis OS ranks #16 of 16 enterprise Linux distributions in the Enterprise Linux Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 46 out of 100. Anolis OS pairs RHEL-compatible 7 and 8 lines with an independent 23 line aimed at Chinese CPUs, with lifecycle dates published only by Alibaba Cloud.
Scores
Source: Enterprise Linux Ledger 2026, edition 2026-10-16. How each score works: methodology.
Pros
- Hardware and architectures4/5
Cons
- Fleet management and automation1.5/5
- AI and GPU readiness1.5/5
- Enterprise integration and certifications2/5
What the Ledger says
Anolis OS is two distributions under one name: a RHEL-compatible 8 line that Alibaba Cloud builds its own product on, and a 23 line that moves fast on Chinese CPUs and RISC-V. The scores are held back by what cannot be read rather than by what ships: no lifecycle policy, no advisory feed and no English release notes were found, so lifecycle, security and credibility sit near the middle of the scale. The sustainability risk is the sponsor: the project's health follows Alibaba Cloud's interest in it. A buyer should first obtain the support end date for the 23 line in writing, because no page read here states one.
OpenAnolis calls itself an AI-native operating system community, and the one AI fact that could be verified is a community repository with NVIDIA driver and CUDA packages used by Alibaba Cloud Linux 3. Nothing else, including the OSCopilot assistant, could be traced to a release.
Capability by area
Buying, lock-in and release record
Buying and licence (commercial risk)(lower is better)
- Maintainer concentration3.5
- Alibaba Cloud co-founded the community and builds its own distribution on Anolis; the share of commits by company is not published
- Backer health2
- Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 and 3 are built on Anolis 7 and 8, which ties the sponsor's product to the project; 1,000 or more member organisations claimed
- Licence-change risk1.5
- Packages keep upstream licences; the distribution's own licence terms were not stated on the pages read
- Abandonment signs1
- 23.5 in 2026-07, 8.10 in 2025-04 and monthly committee meetings
- Security response3
- Fix counts are published per release; no advisory feed or CVE response times found
Technical lock-in(lower is better)
- Formats1
- RPM, qcow2 and OCI images
- Export path1.5
- 7 and 8 are RHEL compatible, so moving to another EL distribution is a package swap; the 23 line diverges
- Stack coupling1
- Any storage and standard Linux networking
- Hardware / cloud coupling2.5
- Strongest on Chinese CPUs and Alibaba Cloud; x86-64 and AArch64 supported
- Skills and tooling coupling3
- Skills and documentation concentrated in China; EL skills transfer to the 7 and 8 lines
Release credibility
- Cadence3
- 23.x point releases about yearly (23.3 in 2025-07, 23.5 in 2026-07) and 8.x following RHEL; no schedule published
- Roadmap transparency2
- Announcements appear as articles on Alibaba's developer site and an open bug tracker; no English pages, no lifecycle policy found
- Say-do2.5
- Little is announced ahead of release; 23.6 timing was discussed in committee and cannot be checked; RISC-V went from preview (23.3) to RVA23 builds (23.5) in a year
- Velocity3
- 23.5 added three CPU platforms, RVA23 and 147 packages in one release
- Lifecycle stability2.5
- Anolis 7 ended 2024-06-30 and 8 runs to 2031-03-31 on Alibaba Cloud's table; the 23 line has no published window
Partners and services
- Partner programme openness2
- Membership open to organisations; resale and support terms not found
- Multi-tenancy and self-service0.5
- Nothing in the OS beyond standard Linux accounts
- API and infrastructure-as-code2
- Standard EL tooling; no vendor API
- Skills and certification1
- No certification programme found
Alternatives to Anolis OS
Questions about Anolis OS
Is Anolis OS any good?
Anolis OS ranks #16 of 16 enterprise Linux distributions in the Enterprise Linux Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 46 out of 100. Its strongest areas are hardware and architectures. Its weakest are fleet management and automation, ai and gpu readiness, enterprise integration and certifications.
What are the best alternatives to Anolis OS?
The closest by Ledger Index are CloudLinux (48.3), CentOS Stream (49.3), openEuler (55.7), Azure Linux (56.2).
How is Anolis OS licensed and sold?
Alibaba Cloud co-founded the community and builds its own distribution on Anolis; the share of commits by company is not published.
How much lock-in does Anolis OS bring?
Anolis OS scores 9 out of 25 on technical lock-in (lower is better). Export path: 7 and 8 are RHEL compatible, so moving to another EL distribution is a package swap; the 23 line diverges.
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