Guided by their users and sponsors, AlmaLinux OS charted a new path in 2023 when Red Hat restricted source code access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Rather than pursue 1-to-1 compatibility with RHEL like other Enterprise Linux alternatives, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation chose application binary interface (ABI) compatibility, which guarantees that applications and kernel modules that work on RHEL will work on AlmaLinux OS. While this route has posed extra challenges, it has also opened up opportunities to meet the needs of the Alma-Linux community. No longer constrained by the 1-to-1 promise, AlmaLinux can offer new features, or add back deprecated ones, while still remaining a stable, drop-in replacement for RHEL.

As the project’s steward, the nonprofit AlmaLinux OS Foundation aims for transparency in decision making about new features and capabilities. To this end, the Foundation has set up the AlmaLinux Engineering Steering Committee (ALESCo), a central collaboration hub for decision making, as well as the upstream experimental AlmaLinux OS Kitten branch for testing new features slated for the stable branch.

The release of AlmaLinux OS 10.2 in May 2026 reveals just how far AlmaLinux has come. AlmaLinux OS 10.2 adds new capabilities and hardware support not available in RHEL 10 without sacrificing compatibility.

ALESCo

Introduced in May 2024, ALESCo functions as air traffic control for AlmaLinux OS with the “goal of providing full transparency regarding technical decisions surrounding AlmaLinux” [1]. It is the driving force behind any deviation AlmaLinux OS takes from its upstreams while still ensuring RHEL compatibility. ALESCo brings together the stakeholders who help build and sustain AlmaLinux OS, including maintainers, packagers, and SIG leads. ALESCo has five key responsibilities: technical oversight of AlmaLinux OS, transparency in engineering decisions, maintaining a focus on long-term stability, release management, and Special Interest Group (SIG) support.

If you work on the AlmaLinux project or use AlmaLinux OS, you can participate in ALESCo by making proposals, raising concerns, or helping shape the OS’s technical direction. ALESCo meets biweekly (see [events.​­almalinux.​­org] for the schedule) with decisions made by majority vote of the committee. You can also join the discussion at ~alesco on [chat.almalinux.org].

Proposals, which are tracked as pull requests in the ALESCo GitHub repository [2], include major changes to AlmaLinux OS or its components, the addition of new features or functionalities, or any change that requires community consensus or will impact the larger project. (Minor enhancements and bug fixes should continue to be reported to the AlmaLinux issue tracker or the appropriate repository). The proposal lifecycle passes through four stages: submitted, accepted for discussion, vote at next meeting, and closed (either accepted, rejected, withdrawn, or superceded).

Many of the new features and capabilities you see in AlmaLinux OS 10.2 started out as proposals in ALESCo.

AlmaLinux OS Kitten

When CentOS Stream 10 (RHEL 10’s precursor) was on the horizon in 2024, AlmaLinux OS Foundation wanted to get a head start on addressing the many expected changes that would go into AlmaLinux OS 10. After setting up the infrastructure and build pipeline for AlmaLinux OS 10, they began testing AlmaLinux OS 10 with the available CentOS Stream code. Voila, AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10 was born.

As an experimental development preview and direct upstream of AlmaLinux OS 10, Kitten functions “as a vehicle along the journey of development of the next version of AlmaLinux” [3]. Proposals accepted by ALESCo are introduced first in Kitten for testing. Kitten lets anyone who is building from or extending on AlmaLinux OS (like CyberTrust Japan’s extension Miracle Linux) get involved in the release process sooner. Not only does it give the community a deeper understanding of the AlmaLinux build process, but it also makes the build process more transparent, which is the goal of any open source project.

Places where AlmaLinux has diverged from CentOS Stream – an additional x86-64-v2 build and EPEL support for x86-64-v2, as well as i686, Btrfs, and native NVIDIA support, to name just a few – got their start in Kitten.

x86-64-v2 Support

When RHEL 10 increased the x86-64-v2 architecture baseline to x86-64-v3, many older server platforms (and some new ones) were left in the lurch. These older servers couldn’t support the modern CPU feature sets in x86-64-v3, including AVX2 CPU instructions. AlmaLinux recognized that many community members employed older hardware that relied on x86-64-v2. While x86-64-v3 is enabled by default in AlmaLinux OS 10 and AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10, an additional x86-64-v2 build is also available. The x86-64-v2 build works best for environments that rely on standard OS packages or that can rebuild any additional packages required by x86-64-v2.

For users with older hardware, the additional x86-64-v2 build allows continued use of current hardware, saving money and keeping servers from the landfill. AlmaLinux OS 10 is actively supported through 2030 with security support through 2035, significantly extending the life of older hardware.