AlmaLinux: Enterprise Linux Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the Enterprise Linux Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: community project
Owner: AlmaLinux OS Foundation, a US 501(c)(6) with a member-elected board; Platinum sponsors Cybertrust, CloudLinux and TuxCare hold 50 votes each
Licence: Free, open-source licences, no subscription; commercial support from sponsors such as TuxCare and CloudLinux
Latest release: 10.2 and 9.8 (2026-05-26, the first time two releases shipped together); 10.3 and 9.9 betas in September 2026
Support lifecycle: Follows RHEL majors; ELevate in-place major upgrades, now part of upstream Leapp; ABI compatible with RHEL rather than bug-for-bug since 2023-07-13
Next milestone: 10.3 and 9.9 GA after RHEL 10.3 and 9.9 (no date); RISC-V board images promised after Kitten 10
Support window: 10 years per major with no extension from the foundation: AlmaLinux 8 to 2029-05-31, 9 to 2032-05-31, 10 to 2035-05-31 (endoflife.date); TuxCare sells extended support
Tier: RHEL rebuild
Archetype: Dependable builder
Evidence grade: B. The foundation blog (release posts, the 2023-07-13 compatibility decision, the 2025 recap, bylaws, NVIDIA, RISC-V and Common Criteria posts) was read from primary sources. Major end dates come from endoflife.date; the 2021 architecture baseline and the origin at CloudLinux are background knowledge.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	71.5 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+9.5 points (2021 to 2022: +0.0)	higher is better
Credibility	19.0 / 25	higher is better
Sustainability risk	9.5 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	2.0 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	8.5 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	3.0 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	63.7 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Lifecycle and upgrades (15)	n/a	n/a	3.5	4
Security and compliance (15)	n/a	n/a	3	3.5
Hardware and architectures (10)	n/a	n/a	3.5	4.5
Virtualization and cloud images (10)	n/a	n/a	3.5	4
Containers and Kubernetes host (10)	n/a	n/a	3.5	3.5
Software currency and packaging (10)	n/a	n/a	4	4
Fleet management and automation (10)	n/a	n/a	2	2
Storage and filesystems (5)	n/a	n/a	4	4.5
Enterprise integration and certifications (5)	n/a	n/a	2.5	2.5
AI and GPU readiness (10)	n/a	n/a	1.5	3
Total / 100	n/a	n/a	62.0	71.5

Year by year: 2021: 62.0 · 2022: 62.0 · 2023: 62.0 · 2024: 62.0 · 2025: 65.0 · 2026: 71.5

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2025	Hardware and architectures	3.5 → 4	+1.0	10.0: x86_64_v2 build alongside v3
2025	Lifecycle and upgrades	3.5 → 4	+1.5	ELevate in-place major upgrade paths merged into upstream Leapp (reported in the 2025 recap)
2025	Storage and filesystems	4 → 4.5	+0.5	10.1: Btrfs support (2025-11-24)
2026	AI and GPU readiness	1.5 → 3	+3.0	NVIDIA-signed driver and CUDA packages from nvidia.repo.almalinux.org for 9 and 10 (2026-03-09)
2026	Hardware and architectures	4 → 4.5	+1.0	Kitten 10 for riscv64 (2026-03-17, preview)
2026	Security and compliance	3 → 3.5	+1.5	Common Criteria EAL1 for AlmaLinux OS 9.2 via JISEC (2026-06-24)
2026	Virtualization and cloud images	3.5 → 4	+1.0	9.8 and 10.2: image set spans AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, OCI, OpenNebula, Vagrant, LXC and WSL

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-07	Board drops 1:1 compatibility for ABI compatibility with RHEL	Licensing	M
2024-05	8.10: final AlmaLinux 8 minor	Lifecycle	U
2024-10	Kitten: rolling development distribution built on CentOS Stream	Lifecycle	V
2025-05	10.0: x86_64_v2 build, CRB enabled by default, native NVIDIA support	Hardware	C
2025-11	10.1: Btrfs support	Storage	C
2026-02	2025 recap: ELevate upgrade paths now in upstream Leapp	Lifecycle	C
2026-03	NVIDIA-signed drivers and CUDA 13.2 served from AlmaLinux infrastructure	AI	M
2026-03	Kitten 10 for riscv64 (RV64GC); board images promised	Hardware	V
2026-05	9.8 and 10.2 same day; deviations from RHEL listed (Btrfs, CRB, re-enabled drivers)	Packaging	C
2026-06	New bylaws: four cohorts, ranked-choice voting, weighted member classes	Governance	C
2026-06	Common Criteria EAL1 for 9.2 via JISEC	Security	C
2026-07	Secure Boot 2023 certificate transition notes	Security	U
2026-10	Election winners announced; survey on direction for the next two to three years	Governance	C

Centre of gravity: Lifecycle (3), Hardware (2), Governance (2)
Blind spots (no items): Virtualization and cloud, Containers, Fleet management, Enterprise integration
Driver mix: Vision 15%, Customer need 54%, Market window 15%, Upstream 15%, Portfolio 0%
Idea-to-need index: 0.18 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 19.0 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	4.5	Minors about a week after RHEL since 2021, kept through 10.2; rhythm not formally published
Roadmap transparency	3.5	Public blog, SIGs, bylaws and a 2026 direction survey; no dated roadmap
Say-do	4	ABI decision, Kitten, x86_64_v2, Btrfs, the NVIDIA repository and the certification all shipped; RISC-V board images still pending
Velocity	3	One or two additions of its own per cycle on top of RHEL's content
Lifecycle stability	4	Ten-year majors with ELevate in-place upgrades; minors unsupported once the next ships

Sustainability risk: 9.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Maintainer concentration	2.5	Foundation staff funded by sponsors; three Platinum sponsors hold 50 votes each against 1 per individual
Backer health	2	CloudLinux, TuxCare and Cybertrust are private; AWS, Azure, Meta and Equinix at Gold; budgets not published
Licence-change risk	2.5	ABI compatibility reduces dependence on exact RHEL sources; still built from CentOS Stream and RHEL code
Abandonment signs	1	Two releases on one day in 2026, elections held, direction survey open
Security response	1.5	Project errata; fixes may ship ahead of RHEL under the ABI model; CVE response times not published

Technical lock-in: 2.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	0.5	RPM, qcow2, OCI; identical to RHEL
Export path	0.5	Moving to RHEL or another rebuild is a scripted switch; ELevate handles major upgrades
Stack coupling	0	No management stack required
Hardware / cloud coupling	0.5	Widest hardware reach in the EL family (v2 and v3, arm64, ppc64le, s390x, riscv64 preview)
Skills and tooling coupling	0.5	RHEL skills transfer one to one

Integrator fit: 8.5 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	2.5	Sponsor memberships; no formal reseller programme found
Multi-tenancy and self-service	0.5	No management product
API and infrastructure-as-code	2.5	Standard EL tooling: Ansible, community Terraform, web console API
Skills and certification	3	RHEL certifications apply in practice; no certification of its own

AI leverage: 3.0 / 20

How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI workload support	n/a	1	2	2026: NVIDIA-signed driver and CUDA 13.2 packages served from nvidia.repo.almalinux.org (2026-03-09)
AI platform stack	n/a	0	0	2021: None
AI-assisted operations	n/a	0	0	2021: None
Agent openness	n/a	1	1	2021: Web console API and Ansible; no agent interface

Year by year: 2021: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2026: 3

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 1 AI items announced; 1 GA, 0 still preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. The one AI item, the NVIDIA repository, shipped for 9 and 10.

AlmaLinux has no AI platform or assistant and does not claim one. Its AI work is plumbing: NVIDIA builds and signs the driver and CUDA packages and AlmaLinux serves them, which removes the third-party repository step for GPU hosts.

Reading

AlmaLinux is the rebuild that changed its own rules in 2023 and then delivered on the room that gave it: Btrfs, a v2 build for older CPUs, in-place upgrades merged upstream, an NVIDIA repository and a Common Criteria certificate. Its capability now edges past Rocky's and its cadence has held at about a week behind RHEL. The sustainability picture is better than its peers' because the foundation is funded by several sponsors, though three of them hold most of the votes. A buyer should check that the ABI-compatible deviations (Btrfs, CRB, re-enabled drivers) do not matter to their ISV support terms.

Open questions and items to re-score

How AlmaLinux obtains RHEL sources since 2023; the 2023-07-13 post does not say.
FIPS 140-3 status not confirmed; Common Criteria covers 9.2 at EAL1 only.
RISC-V board images were promised for soon after March 2026; Kitten 10 riscv64 counts as a preview.
bootc image support in AlmaLinux 10 not verified, so containers stays at 3.5.
Sponsor voting concentration: Platinum members hold 50 votes each; total member counts are not published.
The ELevate step is dated to the February 2026 recap that reported it; the merge date into upstream Leapp was not found.