The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) is a Public Benefit Corporation created by CentOS Linux co-founder Gregory Kurtzer “ to organize a community around enterprise, research, academia, individuals, and other institutions“ specifically for Rocky Linux. However, there are some differences behind the scenes and out in public that may determine which distribution is best for a particular mission. These stated goals should result in a very similar end-user experience, which means they are typically interchangeable with little effort. Rocky Linux states on their website that they are “ designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.” Similarly, AlmaLinux claims on its website that they are “ 1:1 binary compatible with RHEL and pre-Stream CentOS.”

Both are downstream rebuilds of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and positioned as alternatives to CentOS. Rocky Linux is that they are backed by different communities and non-profit foundations and have slightly different release lags. The main difference between AlmaLinux vs. Rocky Linux across all aspects of the two distros, including everything from community and sponsorship, to release lag and available enterprise support providers. In this blog, I provide an in-depth comparison of AlmaLinux vs. Rocky Linux is a worthwhile exercise for teams considering their Enterprise Linux options.

Now with both distros boasting several successful releases, and both ready for use in enterprise deployments, comparing AlmaLinux vs. With the 2020 decision to discontinue of CentOS Linux came two new Enterprise Linux distributions to fill the void: AlmaLinux, backed by CloudLinux, and Rocky Linux, driven by one of the creators of CentOS Linux, Gregory Kurtzer.

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