AlmaLinux 8.10 has been released, continuing to support hardware that was recently deprecated by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.10, upon which it is based.

AlmaLinux is a RHEL-based distro that aims to provide binary compatibility with RHEL, but the distro has been steadily improving on areas above and beyond RHEL. One of those areas is compatibility with hardware that RHEL has dropped.

“Releasing AlmaLinux 8.10 less than one week after the release of RHEL 8.10 proves again the power of AlmaLinux community and its ability to deliver on speed, quality, and security,” said lead architect at AlmaLinux, Andrew Lukoshko. “Powered by people and organizations that provide infrastructure and deep technical knowledge, we have proven our commitment to deliver the enterprise Linux that people need.”

Some of the hardware AlmaLinux 8.10 supports includes:

• Aacraid – Dell PERC2, 2/Si, 3/Si, 3/Di, Adaptec Advanced Raid Products, HPNetRAID-4M, IBM serveRAID & ICP SCSI
• be2iscsi – Emulex OneConnect Open-iSCSI for BladeEngine 2 and 3 adapters
• hpsa – HP Smart Array Controller
• lpfc – Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI
• megaraid_sas – Broadcom MegaRAID SAS
• mlx4_core – Mellanox Gen2 and ConnectX-2 adapters
• mpt3sas – LSI MPT Fusion SAS 3.0
• mptsas – Fusion MPT SAS Host
• qla2xxx – QLogic Fibre Channel HBA
• qla4xxx – QLogic iSCSI HBA
• be2net – Emulex BladeEngine 2 and 3 adapters

In addition continued hardware compatibility, AlmaLinux 8.10 brings a number of additional improvements.

Updates in 8.10 also bring improvements in web-console and system roles to automate operations and ensure consistency in intricate IT settings. The new system roles streamline the creation and administration of logical volume manager (LVM) snapshots for better data backup and recovery processes. Additionally, AlmaLinux 8.10 further enhances system availability and recovery processes while also improving virtual machine snapshot functions in hybrid cloud scenarios.

Project leaders emphasized how this latest release emphasizes the commitment to keeping pace with RHEL releases.

“Our consistently speedy releases, as illustrated by today’s announcement and the recent release of
9.4, underscore the reliability and timeliness offered via AlmaLinux,” said benny Vasquez, chair of
the AlmaLinus OS Foundation. “With AlmaLinux, users can confidently deploy robust, scalable, and
secure Linux environments, ensuring seamless integration and maximum operational efficiency.”

Once a 1:1 RHEL clone, AlmaLinux has adapted to be application binary compatible since Red Hat began restricting access to its source code. As a result, AlmaLinux developers have been free to improve on some areas, going beyond RHEL’s limitations while still maintaining full compatibility.

AlmaLinux 9.4, and now 8.10, continue to demonstrate the project’s role in providing a free and fully open-source alternative to Red Hat.