AlmaLinux developers have announced a change in focus for the distro, abandoning efforts to remain 1:1 compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

AlmaLinux is a downstream distro that has maintained 1:1 compatibility with RHEL, providing customers an affordable alternative to Red Hat’s offering. Like Rocky Linux and Oracle Linux, AlmaLinux helped fill the void created when Red Hat purchased and then killed off CentOS mid-life cycle.

Red Hat has been in the headlines and making waves for its recent decision to put RHEL source code behind a paywall, in what many see as a violation of the GPL. RHEL’s source code will only be available to paying customers — which is not a violation of the GPL — but users must agree they will not redistribute the source code — which likely is a violation of the GPL — or their accounts will be terminated. The move was widely seen as an effort to kill off AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, and Oracle Linux, much as RHEL killed off the original CentOS.

AlmaLinux’s developers initially said they would try to maintain 1:1 comparability but are now revising their goals after further research and discussion:

After much discussion, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation board today has decided to drop the aim to be 1:1 with RHEL. AlmaLinux OS will instead aim to be Application Binary Interface (ABI) compatible*.

We will continue to aim to produce an enterprise-grade, long-term distribution of Linux that is aligned and ABI compatible with RHEL in response to our community’s needs, to the extent it is possible to do, and such that software that runs on RHEL will run the same on AlmaLinux.

Red Hat has taken quite a bit of heat for their decision, especially given how hostile it is to open source in general. Oracle penned a scathing response, and SUSE is forking RHEL in an effort to provide customers with the support and experience they’ve come to rely on.