Other Improvements

Additional points where AlmaLinux OS 10.2 diverges from RHEL 10 include:

• Re-enabling frame pointers disabled by default in RHEL and CentOS Stream: This provides system-wide, real-time tracing and profiling to diagnose and optimize code.
• Adding Btrfs support: AlmaLinux OS 10.1 enabled both kernel and userspace components allowing installation of AlmaLinux on a Btrfs filesystem from the outset.
• Enabling CodeReady Builder (CRB) repository by default: Avoids frustrating dependency errors and false bug reports on broken dependencies for EPEL packages (e.g., the KDE Plasma desktop) that depend on the CRB repo.
• Adding SPICE support: Dropped in RHEL 9, AlmaLinux OS 10 re-adds SPICE support, allowing users to interact with a virtual machine’s desktop remotely instead of just from the host server.
• Restoring support for older storage and network drivers that have been disabled upstream, including Adaptec, Dell Perc, HP, Mellanox, QLogic, Emulex, LSI, and Broadcom.

In addition to adding and restoring features needed by the AlmaLinux community, AlmaLinux has continued to rapidly address security issues with patches including Copy Fail (CVE-2026031431), Dirty FRAG (CVE-2026-43284, CVE-2026-43500), Fragnesia (CVE-2026-46300), NGINX Rift (CVE-2026-42945), and SSH Keysign Pwn (CVE-2026-45333). Thanks to ABI compatibility, AlmaLinux can sometimes deliver patches more quickly than RHEL.

Conclusion

No longer bound by 1-to-1 compatibility, AlmaLinux has continued to work with its community to deliver an OS that addresses gaps in the Enterprise Linux ecosystem. You can still use AlmaLinux anywhere you already run RHEL; your existing tooling will not be able to tell the difference. As benny Vasquez, AlmaLinux OS Foundation Chair, has noted [5], none of the enhancements introduced in AlmaLinux OS 10.2 “touches compatibility, and it all came from real problems people brought to us.”

Info

[1] “2025 AlmaLinux Year in Review” by benny Vasquez, AlmaLinux Blog, February 25, 2026, [https://almalinux.org/blog/2026-02-25-almalinux-2025-recap/]

[2] ALESCo GitHub repo: [https://github.com/AlmaLinux/ALESCo]

[3] “Introducing AlmaLinux OS Kitten” by benny Vasquez & Neal Gompa, AlmaLinux Blog, October 22, 2024, [https://almalinux.org/blog/2024-10-22-introducing-almalinux-os-kitten/]

[4] AlmaLinux x86-64-v2 EPEL repo: [https://epel.repo.almalinux.org/]

[5] “AlmaLinux 10.2 Breaks From Its RHEL Clone Roots” by Jack Germain, LinuxInsider, August 17, 2026, [https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/almalinux-10-2-breaks-from-its-rhel-clone-roots-177774.html]