At the end of June, the announcement regarding limiting access to RHEL’s source code shocked the enterprise Linux niche to its core, putting the industry’s leading names in a delicate situation.
While CIQ, Oracle, and SUSE joined forces in the recently formed Open Enterprise Linux Association (OpenELA) to guarantee Enterprise Linux’s safe and predictable future, AlmaLinux chose a different course.
The distro has decided to shift its focus from this to being 1:1 compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux in favor of achieving Application Binary Interface (ABI) compatibility.
In this regard, AlmaLinux has announced the addition of two new repositories, Testing and Synergy, which mark a significant milestone in AlmaLinux’s goal to stay only ABI compatible with RHEL.
What Is Alma’s Testing Repository
Alma’s Testing repository provides security updates that will be made available to users without waiting for them to be approved and implemented upstream (RHEL). In other words, users can patch found security issues almost immediately after the Alma developers release the corresponding patch.
The repository is available for AlmaLinux 8 and 9 and can be added by running the following DNF command:
sudo dnf install almalinux-release-testing
What Is Alma’s Synergy Repository
Alma’s Synergy repository, on the other hand, is something that we believe is a significant step forward for Alma in acquiring a larger user base.
Designed entirely in the spirit of the Open Source and the community around it, the Synergy repository is intended for any possible package that is not present in RHEL or EPEL yet but has been requested by a member of the Alma community.
For example, let’s say you want to install the Seafile File Sync Server, unavailable in EPEL or any other RHEL/Alma’s repositories. So, you can request its inclusion; if convenient, the package will be added.
The best thing is that the repository will not be limited to AlmaLinux only but will also be available and compatible with other distributions in the Enterprise Linux ecosystem like RHEL, Rocky Linux, Oracle Linux, CentOS, etc. Kudos for that, Alma!
The repository is available for AlmaLinux 8 and 9 and can be added by running the following command:
sudo dnf install almalinux-release-synergy
If you are using a RHEL-based distribution other than Alma, to enable the Synergy repository, use the following command:
dnf install -y https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/almalinux-release-synergy-latest-$(rpm -E %rhel).noarch.rpmCode language: JavaScript (javascript)Please be aware that enabling the Synergy repository will also enable the EPEL and PowerTools/CRB repositories.
To learn more about the two new repositories, check out the announcement or the AlmaLinux Wiki.
