After CentOS
2020-present. Red Hat killed CentOS in 2020. Two community rebuilds — Rocky and AlmaLinux — sprang up within months to fill the vacuum. The RHEL-compatible distro space rewires itself.
4 moments in this segment.
- — Springdale Linux. Founder: Princeton University · Based on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux · First release: 2002 Maintained by Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study from 2002 onward. RHEL-compatible rebuild used in academic computing across the Princeton-IAS network and beyond. Survived the CentOS Linux death.
- — EuroLinux. Founder: EuroLinux SA · Based on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux · First release: 2018 Polish-built RHEL rebuild launched 2018. Targets European public-sector and enterprise customers. Continued operations through the CentOS Stream transition with minimal disruption to existing customers.
- — Rocky Linux. Founder: Gregory Kurtzer · Based on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux · First release: 2021 Gregory Kurtzer (co-founder of CentOS) announced Rocky Linux on December 8, 2020 — within 24 hours of Red Hat's announcement that CentOS Linux would end. Named for the late CentOS co-founder Rocky McGaugh. Rocky 8.4 shipped June 2021. Now run as a community-controlled 501(c)(6).
- — AlmaLinux. Founder: CloudLinux · Based on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux · First release: 2021 CloudLinux launched AlmaLinux ("alma" = Spanish for "soul") in March 2021 — another community-driven RHEL rebuild, with a $1M-per-year sponsorship commitment. AlmaLinux and Rocky cover roughly the same niche; both are typically used interchangeably for CentOS-Linux replacements.
