Anolis OS: 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: OpenAnolis community (council, technical committee, operations committee; 1,000 or more member organisations claimed), founded in 2020 with Alibaba Cloud among the founding members
Engine: RHEL-compatible package base for the 7 and 8 lines; the 23 line has its own package base and kernel 6.6
Licence: Open source, free download; no subscription from the community; the licence terms of the distribution are not stated on the pages read
Latest release: 23.5, kernel 6.6.102-6 (mirror folders dated 2026-06-09 to 2026-07-10; community article 2026-07-22); 8.10 (ISO files dated 2025-04-01)
Support lifecycle: Not published on the project pages read; the 8 line follows RHEL 8 point releases
Next milestone: Anolis OS 23.6, discussed at the May 2026 committee meeting without a date read
Support window: Not published by the project; Alibaba Cloud's lifecycle page lists Anolis OS 8 support to 2031-03-31 and Anolis OS 7 ended 2024-06-30; no dates for the 23 line
Tier: Asian distribution
Archetype: Sponsor-led innovator
Evidence grade: C. The community home page, the project mirror, the Docker Hub image and Alibaba Cloud's documentation were read from primary sources. Release dates come from mirror timestamps and dated community articles on Alibaba's developer site; no release notes, lifecycle policy or errata process could be read.

Scope of the scores: China-led community project whose releases and governance are documented in Chinese, largely on Alibaba's developer site. English pages returned 404 on 2026-10-15, so dates rest on mirror timestamps and article dates.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	50.0 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+8.5 points (2020 to 2022: +0.0)	higher is better
Credibility	13.0 / 25	higher is better
Sustainability risk	11.0 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	9.0 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	5.5 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	2.5 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	46.0 / 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	2	2.5
Security and compliance (15)	n/a	n/a	2	2.5
Hardware and architectures (10)	n/a	n/a	3	4
Virtualization and cloud images (10)	n/a	n/a	2.5	2.5
Containers and Kubernetes host (10)	n/a	n/a	2.5	2.5
Software currency and packaging (10)	n/a	n/a	2.5	3
Fleet management and automation (10)	n/a	n/a	1.5	1.5
Storage and filesystems (5)	n/a	n/a	3	3
Enterprise integration and certifications (5)	n/a	n/a	1.5	2
AI and GPU readiness (10)	n/a	n/a	0.5	1.5
Total / 100	n/a	n/a	41.5	50.0

Year by year: 2020: 41.5 · 2021: 41.5 · 2022: 41.5 · 2023: 41.5 · 2024: 44.0 · 2025: 46.5 · 2026: 50.0

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2024	AI and GPU readiness	0.5 → 1.5	+2.0	epao repository with NVIDIA driver and CUDA packages, named in Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 documentation; first availability date not verified
2024	Enterprise integration and certifications	1.5 → 2	+0.5	Second OpenAnolis conference (2024-09): 8 million installations and 1,000 or more member organisations; no AD, SAP or Oracle certification read
2025	Hardware and architectures	3 → 3.5	+1.0	23.3 (2025-07): RISC-V preview, half step
2025	Lifecycle and upgrades	2 → 2.5	+1.5	8.10 (ISO 2025-04-01) completes the 8 line; Alibaba Cloud lists support to 2031-03-31; the project publishes no dates and the 23 line has none
2026	Hardware and architectures	3.5 → 4	+1.0	23.5: RISC-V RVA23 and LoongArch64 builds; Hygon, Zhaoxin KH-50000 and Kunpeng 950 support; no hardware catalogue read
2026	Security and compliance	2 → 2.5	+1.5	23.5: over one hundred high-severity fixes; confidential computing and commercial cryptography compliance named on the site; errata feed not found
2026	Software currency and packaging	2.5 → 3	+1.0	23.5: kernel 6.6.102-6; 147 new packages and JDK 25 reported at the May 2026 committee meeting

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
2023-06	Anolis OS 23 reaches GA testing (bug tracker tags; exact release date not found)	Lifecycle	V
2024-03	23.1 GA (bug tracker tags)	Lifecycle	U
2024-09	Second OpenAnolis conference: AI-native operating system route with three plans; 8 million installations	AI	V
2025-04	8.10: ANCK and RHCK kernels; final 8 point release	Lifecycle	U
2025-07	23.3 with RISC-V preview	Hardware	V
2025-11	23.4 release candidate (bug tracker)	Lifecycle	U
2026-05	Committee meeting: CXL SIG project open sourced; AI Agent ecosystem push; 23.6 planning	Governance	V
2026-07	23.5: three domestic CPU platforms, RISC-V RVA23, DDE upgrade, over one hundred high-severity fixes	Hardware	C

Centre of gravity: Lifecycle (4), Hardware (2), AI (1)
Blind spots (no items): Security, Virtualization and cloud, Containers, Packaging, Fleet management, Storage, Enterprise integration, Licensing
Driver mix: Vision 50%, Customer need 13%, Market window 0%, Upstream 38%, Portfolio 0%
Idea-to-need index: 0.80 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 13.0 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	3	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 transparency	2	Announcements appear as articles on Alibaba's developer site and an open bug tracker; no English pages, no lifecycle policy found
Say-do	2.5	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
Velocity	3	23.5 added three CPU platforms, RVA23 and 147 packages in one release
Lifecycle stability	2.5	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

Sustainability risk: 11.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Maintainer concentration	3.5	Alibaba Cloud co-founded the community and builds its own distribution on Anolis; the share of commits by company is not published
Backer health	2	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 risk	1.5	Packages keep upstream licences; the distribution's own licence terms were not stated on the pages read
Abandonment signs	1	23.5 in 2026-07, 8.10 in 2025-04 and monthly committee meetings
Security response	3	Fix counts are published per release; no advisory feed or CVE response times found

Technical lock-in: 9.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	1	RPM, qcow2 and OCI images
Export path	1.5	7 and 8 are RHEL compatible, so moving to another EL distribution is a package swap; the 23 line diverges
Stack coupling	1	Any storage and standard Linux networking
Hardware / cloud coupling	2.5	Strongest on Chinese CPUs and Alibaba Cloud; x86-64 and AArch64 supported
Skills and tooling coupling	3	Skills and documentation concentrated in China; EL skills transfer to the 7 and 8 lines

Integrator fit: 5.5 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	2	Membership open to organisations; resale and support terms not found
Multi-tenancy and self-service	0.5	Nothing in the OS beyond standard Linux accounts
API and infrastructure-as-code	2	Standard EL tooling; no vendor API
Skills and certification	1	No certification programme found

AI leverage: 2.5 / 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	0.5	1.5	2024: epao repository with NVIDIA driver and CUDA packages, named in Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 documentation; first availability date not verified
AI platform stack	n/a	0	0	2020: None
AI-assisted operations	n/a	0	0	2020: None
Agent openness	n/a	1	1	2020: Standard Linux APIs; SkillHub and OSCopilot are linked from the community site without release notes

Year by year: 2020: 1.5 · 2021: 1.5 · 2022: 1.5 · 2023: 1.5 · 2024: 2.5 · 2025: 2.5 · 2026: 2.5

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 3 AI items announced; 0 GA, 0 still preview, 3 pending, 0 dropped. The AI-native route with three plans (2024-09), the AI Agent ecosystem push (2026-05) and the OSCopilot and SkillHub links could not be matched to a released feature.

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.

Reading

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.

Open questions and items to re-score

Release dates for 23.x and 8.10 rest on mirror timestamps and article dates (grade C).
Lifecycle windows are published only by Alibaba Cloud (8 to 2031-03-31); the project's own policy and the 23 line dates were not found.
Security errata process and CVE response times not found.
Legal form of OpenAnolis and the licence terms of the distribution not stated on the pages read.
The epao GPU repository's first availability date and current contents not verified.
OSCopilot, SkillHub and the three AI plans from 2024-09 have no release record that could be read.