The newest release: AlmaLinux 9.3 Beta – What are the updates?

The Beta of AlmaLinux 9.3 has been unveiled on October 26, 2023. It supports the following platforms:

– x86_64
– aarch64
– ppc64le
– s390x

Codename: Shamrock Pampas Cat.

Distributed kernel version: 5.14.0-362.2.1.el9_3

warning: This is a BETA release and should not be used for production installations. The provided upgrade instructions should not be used on production machines unless you don’t mind if something breaks.

AlmaLinux is an open-source, community-backed project built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

It’s fully binary-compatible with RHEL and is led by the developers of CloudLinux OS. The AlmaLinux team has promised the public that the AlmaLinux operating system will remain forever free, always open source, with no restrictions, completely free of charge.

In 2020, Red Hat chose not to continue CentOS Linux as an independent distribution but rolled out the rolling update CentOS Stream, considering it as the precursor version of the enterprise-level RHEL.

Following this decision, the community swiftly launched several projects to replace CentOS, of which the two most prominent are Rocky Linux, supported by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, and AlmaLinux, backed by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation.

This new version introduces advanced security features and operational status check tools for containers and virtual machines. Additionally, it offers the required flexibility, stability, and reliability for hybrid clouds.

The official announcement mentioned:

• The goal of AlmaLinux 9.3 Beta is to enhance flexibility, reliability, and increase security in hybrid environments. This version further simplifies automation and system management.
• The enhanced Web console makes management tasks more convenient. Moreover, users can set operational status to check the behavior of Podman containers and vsock devices in virtual machines.
• The update of Application Streams offers developers more flexibility and customization options while ensuring stable platform operation.

You can read more about this release by checking out the Release Notes.

Updated toolchain components:

GCC 11.4.1

Performance tools and debuggers updates:

Valgrind 3.21
SystemTap 4.9
elfutils 0.189

Updated performance monitoring tools:

PCP 6.0.5
Grafana 9.2.10

Compiler updates:

GCC Toolset 13
LLVM Toolset 16.0.6
Rust Toolset 1.71.1
Go Toolset 1.20.6

Updated dynamic programming languages, web and database servers:

Redis 7
Node.js 20
Apache HTTP Server 2.4.57

Security updates:

Keylime 7.3.0.
OpenSSH was further migrated from the less secure SHA-1 message digest.
The pcsc-lite-ccid USB Chip/Smart Card Interface Device(CCID) and Integrated Circuit Card Device (ICCD) driver was rebased to version 1.5.2.

AlmaLinux 9.3 introduces further improvements to support the Extended Master Secret (EMS) extension (RFC 7627) required by the FIPS-140-3 standard for all TLS 1.2 connections.
SEtools, the collection of graphical tools, command-line tools, and libraries for SELinux policy analysis, was rebased to version 4.4.2.
OpenSCAP was rebased to version 1.3.8.
SCAP Security Guide was rebased to version 0.1.69.