Welcome to Open Channels News, your trusted update on everything open source. In today’s episode, Robert Jacobi chats with benny Vasquez, chair of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, at Open Source Summit Europe. From the conversation:
- AlmaLinux: Born from CentOS’s End
When Red Hat ceased producing the free downstream CentOS operating system five years ago, a group of users stepped up to build AlmaLinux, aiming to ensure a CentOS alternative continued for the community 00:26. - A Truly Open Governance Model
AlmaLinux’s nonprofit foundation structure ensures no single person holds control over its future. Anyone can join the foundation, not just code contributors, and every member has a voice—emphasizing longevity and democratic decision-making in the project 01:01. - Community-Elected Leadership and Board Expansion
AlmaLinux announced two new additions to its community-elected board, enhancing both commercial and user-centric perspectives. The foundation’s board is chosen by its members, fostering transparency and inclusivity within leadership 02:57.
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Takeaways
- AlmaLinux’s Origin: benny explained that AlmaLinux was created after Red Hat decided to stop producing the downstream free version of CentOS about five years ago, prompting users to build a replacement themselves 00:26.
- Foundation Structure for Longevity: benny described how the AlmaLinux project is managed by a US-based nonprofit foundation with membership tiers, ensuring the project does not rely on any single person for its future and offers everyone—even users—a voice in its direction 01:01.
- Sponsor Support Without Commercial Aspect: benny stated that AlmaLinux is fully sponsored by about 35 to 40 organizations at different tiers, providing people, money, or resources to keep the project going, with significant support from CloudLinux (TuxCare) and CyberTrust Japan 01:40.
- Community Engagement at Events: benny emphasized that AlmaLinux attends 30 to 40 events a year, purposefully choosing them to connect with users and engage with the community where they are most active 02:27.
- Community-Elected Leadership and Board Updates: benny announced that two new people are joining the AlmaLinux board, reflecting both commercial open source and user-centric perspectives, with all foundation members having voting rights for leadership 02:57.
- Open Source Impact: Robert highlighted that open source, including projects like AlmaLinux, is fundamental to powering the digital world 03:40.
- Accessible Community Resources: benny shared that more information about AlmaLinux is available at almalinux.org and that their chat community is open and friendly at chat.almalinux.org 03:47.
Questions This Episode Answers
Q: What is AlmaLinux and why was it created?
A: AlmaLinux is an open source operating system started about five years ago in response to Red Hat’s decision to stop producing a free downstream version of CentOS. Users who relied on CentOS wanted it to continue, so they began building AlmaLinux as its replacement 00:26.
Q: How is the AlmaLinux OS project structured to ensure long-term sustainability?
A: AlmaLinux is managed by a nonprofit foundation with various membership tiers, including individual memberships open even to non-coders. This structure ensures the project is not dependent on any single person for its long-term future and gives all members a voice in governance 01:01.
Q: How is AlmaLinux funded and what role do sponsors play?
A: AlmaLinux does not have a commercial aspect and is fully funded by about 35 to 40 sponsors at different tiers. Major sponsors like CloudLinux/TuxCare and CyberTrust Japan provide both significant financial support (around $100,000 a year each) and people resources, allowing activities like full-time project work and attending events 01:40.
Q: Why does AlmaLinux participate in conferences and what are its goals at such events?
A: AlmaLinux attends 30 to 40 events per year, carefully choosing those that help connect with its community. The main goal is to meet users where they are, often joining events recommended by the community to strengthen those relationships 02:27.
Q: How is leadership selected for the AlmaLinux OS Foundation and what recent changes were announced?
A: The board of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation is elected by community members, giving anyone in the foundation a say in its leadership. In the episode, it was announced that two new people—a commercial open source perspective and a user-centric perspective—are joining the board, reflecting ongoing volunteer-driven contributions 02:57.
Q: Where can people learn more about AlmaLinux or get involved?
A: Information about AlmaLinux can be found at almalinux.org, and the community is active and welcoming in their Mattermost chat at chat.almalinux.org 03:47.
Episode Transcript
Robert Jacobi: Hi, I’m Robert Jacobi at Open Source Summit Europe with our guest Benny Vasquez, chair of the AlmaLinux OS project foundation.
Benny Vasquez: Foundation.
Robert Jacobi: Foundation. Excellent. And we’re actually using the record button now, which we didn’t before. So there might be a little giggling on this, but that’s all right. That’s Open Channels News for you. Live and in 3D. So AlmaLinux, what is it? Where did it come from? Why do we have it?
Benny Vasquez: Yeah, sure. So we got started about 5 years ago, Red Hat announced that they would no longer be producing the downstream free version of the operating system that we had all been using called CentOS. And we were all users of it, so we wanted it to continue to exist, so we started building it.
Robert Jacobi: Excellent. And I mean, that’s just cool in general. That’s what open source should be about.
Benny Vasquez: That’s exactly what open source is.
Robert Jacobi: And I find it to be the open source-iest of open source projects, especially Linux distros or however you wanna talk about it. And so what does that mean? How do you do it?
Benny Vasquez: We have… so in the US, we set up a nonprofit foundation to own everything. The foundation has membership tiers, I guess. And the most important thing for me as we set everything up was that long-term, the project isn’t reliant on a single person. It’s not reliant on me. It’s not reliant on any one person for long-term interest. So we set up individual memberships for anybody who wants to join, even as a user. You don’t have to be contributing code, and you have a voice. As if, if you join the foundation, you have a voice in the future of AlmaLinux, no matter what happens.
Robert Jacobi: And there’s no real commercial aspect. It’s fully sponsored by other entities.
Benny Vasquez: Correct, yeah. Yeah, we have about 35, 40 sponsors who have joined at different tiers to give us people or money or resources that help us make sure that we get to pay our bills and keep the lights on.
Robert Jacobi: And there’s some big names in that group.
Benny Vasquez: Oh yeah, for sure. We have a bunch of silver sponsors. We have 2 platinum sponsors. One is CloudLinux or TuxCare, and the other is CyberTrust Japan. They both give us around $100,000 a year in cash, and they both provide people which help us do things like this where I get to be sponsored to do AlmaLinux stuff full-time by… I’m actually sponsored by TuxCare, and it’s an incredible benefit for the open source ecosystem in general when companies do that.
Robert Jacobi: And you have a booth here, which I’m, you know, okay, so it’s a Linux project. That’s nice. Why have a booth?
Benny Vasquez: Sure, yeah. For us, the most important thing, we do between 30 to 40 events in a year, and all of them are very intentionally chosen to connect to our community. So we go places that we think the users will be able to gather. We normally end up at events that our users ask us to join. So it’s really about being able to meet our community where they are.
Robert Jacobi: And for sort of the Open Channels’ geeky news side of things, you do have some announcements that came out today.
Benny Vasquez: Yeah, yeah. So today we get to announce 2 new people that are joining us on our board because our board is community elected. And that means that any members of the foundation get to vote in who leads the foundation. Open source leadership is not normally sexy unless it’s contentious or there’s fighting going on.
Robert Jacobi: No, it’s not sexy. It’s fighting, trust me, it’s just fighting.
Benny Vasquez: At least then there’s people talking about it. But we get to add 2 new people. We are adding both the commercial open source perspective and the like deep user-centric perspective in the 2 that we’re adding today. It’s very exciting for me to see people continue to want to give to an open source project like this, even when it’s all volunteer.
Robert Jacobi: Open source is cool. It runs the digital world we live in. Where can folks find out more about AlmaLinux?
Benny Vasquez: Sure, almalinux.org is the easiest place. You can come join us in our chat, chat.almalinux.org. It’s Mattermost, and it’s… we’re a friendly bunch.
Robert Jacobi: Friendly bunch. And that’s the AlmaLinux OS Foundation at almalinux.org. Benny Vasquez, chair of AlmaLinux OS Foundation, thank you so much.
Benny Vasquez: Thank you.
