Almalinux 9 vs Ubuntu 22 Jun 2023 for newbie

taker18

taker18

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Hey everyone! I know many of you are fans of ALmalinux for some great reasons. However, I personally haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Unlike Ubuntu, there seems to be less readily available information about ALmalinux. So, my question is, is it difficult to switch to ALmalinux? Can we find all the necessary information easily? I'm planning to build a new server with ALmalinux, but I'm worried about getting stuck with something new without as much support as Ubuntu. I know for fact that the DirectAdmin community is really helpful and unique 100%. There is Limite to asking about everything.
Can you share your experiences and insights?
in addition, we are in June 2023 can you share your opinion and experience about the greater benefit of Almalinux VS ubuntu
Thanks in advance!
 
We using alma in production because we started from Centos and that architecture fits us. Why we didn't use Debian-like - because earlier centos was supported 10 years, while ubuntu/debian released new LTS versions each 2 years and we don't want to have a lot of servers with different OS versions and I don't like distr-upgrade, I prefer new clean OS install.
Now we use ubuntu where we want latest functionality and hardware support.
If project oriented to use some old/current things - we use Almalinux.
There are a lot of manuals too about how to install/patch something on centos/redhat-like OS.
If you need something not from repo, at my own expirience, on ubuntu easier to find some ready deb-package, with centos sometimes there no ready rpm-package so you need to compile something manually, and of course you need to solve dependencies/paths/patches - in most cases you can find detailed manuals in google, but sometimes need to solve exact configure/compile errors step by step and keep own manual for future. So sometimes to solve this we use payed but ready decisions like Cloudlinux :)
But it's my own experience.
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what about alma 9 vs ubuntu 22 - alma little stucked on 9.1 and still no fresh updates and I don't know when they planned, in this case ubuntu looks like more alive. I don't use Alma 9 yet, still installing 8.7, but there on forum a lot of guys who using alma9 at least last 6+ months. Maybe they advice you.
 
We are also using Almalinux because we did not like to upgrade to Centos 8 Stream. So we converted a server from Centos 8 to Alma 8 and were very happy about it.
Almalinux is a 1:1 compatible OS with RHEL so most information can just be found for RHEL.

We also like clean install more, but that is not always possible. And Debian (and alike) are the only ones where a major OS upgrade is possible, supported by the package manager. While RHEL and alikes have to use external tools for it.

If you are thinking about using Cloudlinux now or in the near future, you can't get around AlmaLinux.
Since we needed php 7.4 on that server (was more than a year ago so php 7.4 was not EOL yet), we needed to use Alma 8.x.
On a VPS we installed recently, we have Alma 9 running. However, everything on there needs to be php 8.1 or 8.2 compatible, because we can't run php 8.0 or lower on there.

We love Alma due to the fact that its 1:1 Centos compatible and we used Centos for years and are used to it.
But the option to make major OS upgrades without the need of external tools like apt upgrade can do, might make us choose to test a Debian server next time we need a new server.

Zhenyapan said:
what about alma 9 vs ubuntu 22 - alma little stucked on 9.1 and still no fresh updates
Click to expand...
I think that might be caused because Ubuntu is more like Fedora, so maybe Alma needs to be compared with Debian which probably also is a bit more slower with fresh things than Ubuntu.
Could that be the case?
 
My $0.02 on Debian... Debian can be a little behind in versions, but it's been stable, and we only install what is needed. Very handy being able to do in-place upgrades, saves so much time (prefer updates of OS versions more often, that upgrade pretty clean, than running a LTS for that many years), still good to do a clean install once in a while to help get rid of any left over legacy stuff. In the instances I need a newer app (eg: curl), I upgrade the app to the backports version which has a newer version. Most of the time you don't need the latest version of the app, most important that it's stable and gets security patches when needed. Most servers I have are running auto daily updates for the OS (get e-mailed reports with every update so I can check them and schedule reboots when there is a kernel update). For DA updates I only have a few servers that do all the DA managed apps updates automatically, mostly for testing, prefer to be a little more interactive with these updates in case something breaks. I have looked at Ubuntu but things tend to change a bit too quickly.
 
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CentOS vs Ubuntu - Which One to Choose for Your Web Server

Read our CentOS vs Ubuntu comparison to choose the best Linux distribution for your server. In-depth comparison and tables included!
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Taking points
1- CentOS is more reliable and more secure.
2- Ubuntu is beginner friendly

3- CentOS is considered to be a more stable distribution compared to Ubuntu
4- If you are a business owner: CentOS is the ideal choice between the two if you run a business because it’s (arguably) securer and more stable than Ubuntu,
5-
Ubuntu offers a larger number of packages in comparison to CentOS. You can choose from over ten thousand packages offered by Ubuntu. This is in contrast to the CentOS repository, which offers only a few thousand packages. This means that Ubuntu is better in the number of tools offered, even if these packages aren’t necessarily business-related.
6- CentOS, AlmaLinux is known for its stability and reliability

I am noticing many people using Ubuntu because they are very familiar with it. on the other hand, many others are doing the same thing With ALmalinux as well. But I don't want to submit to ignorant of the software, I am willing to learn new and better software.
 
Why would Ubuntu be more beginner friendly than Centos? I would put it like this.

1.) Centos (or now Almalinux and Rocky) and Debian are more reliable/stable, so maybe more secure because of this.
2.) All the above are considered more stable compared to Centos Stream, Fedora and Ubuntu.
3.) Centos 7 and Almalinux/rocky 8 (and higher) and Debian are all the same secure. Centos/Alma are not more secure than Debian.
4.) Debian/Ubuntu provide in place major upgrades supported by the OS while Centos/Alma/Rocky need external tool for that.
5.) You should rather compare Ubuntu against Debian, but yes, if you compare it to Centos/Alma point 5 is correct.

6 is the same as 1.
If you are familiar with Ubuntu, then you're also familiar with Debian. So you can choose either, depending on the stability you want.
Also Debian is slightly supported better (imho) by panels.

so 6.) If you ever want to use Cloudlinux, then you are required to use Almalinux.
 
No Doubt CentOS was reliable but after we switched to AlmaLinux trust me there is no regret its working just fine even better than CentOS in many cases
 
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