AlmaLinux is primarily viewed as a server operating system, but what about workstation use?

I decided to put AlmaLinux through a real desktop test to find out whether it can serve as a practical operating system for everyday computing. The results may surprise you!

What is AlmaLinux OS?

Before we dive into the desktop experience, let’s take a moment to understand what AlmaLinux OS is, where it came from, and who it’s designed for. Since there are hundreds of Linux distributions to choose from, it’s also worth looking at what makes AlmaLinux different. After that, we’ll install it and see how it performs on a desktop or laptop.

AlmaLinux was created in response to Red Hat’s 2020 announcement that traditional CentOS Linux was being discontinued in favor of CentOS Stream. While CentOS Stream is a perfectly capable distribution, it serves a different purpose than the CentOS many organizations had relied on for years. As a result, many users and businesses began looking for alternatives.

That’s where projects like AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux came in. Their goal was to provide a community-driven Enterprise Linux distribution that could serve as a practical replacement for CentOS. Both projects have been successful and remain popular choices for Enterprise Linux users today.

One of the key aspects of AlmaLinux is its governance model. The project is overseen by the AlmaLinux OS Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps ensure the distribution remains community-driven rather than controlled by a single vendor. For organizations that value long-term stability, that’s an important consideration.

The first stable release of AlmaLinux arrived in 2021, and the project has continued to evolve ever since, with AlmaLinux 10 being the latest major release at the time of this recording.

Another thing that helps AlmaLinux stand out is its community. It’s easy to get involved, contribute, and connect with other users. The project also includes several Special Interest Groups, or SIGs, which focus on specific use cases and help extend AlmaLinux beyond its default installation. We’ll look at some examples of that later, but first, let’s see what AlmaLinux is like as a desktop operating system.

AlmaLinux for your desktop?

A few weeks ago, I decided to answer this question for myself and see how well AlmaLinux works as a desktop operating system.

My first test was fairly traditional. I downloaded the minimal installation image, installed the base system, and then added the GNOME desktop environment afterward. The process was straightforward, and I was up and running quickly.

At the same time, I had a workstation running Fedora 43 that was due for an upgrade to Fedora 44. That particular machine is used primarily for development and system administration, and upgrading it every six months has never really been a problem. But it did get me thinking: does a development workstation really need that many major upgrades?

To find out, I decided to replace Fedora on a machine I actually use every day rather than testing AlmaLinux on a spare system. That’s a much better way to evaluate a distribution than simply installing it in a lab environment.

For that installation, I used AlmaLinux’s GNOME Live image. Similar to Fedora Workstation, it boots into a live desktop environment that you can test before installing. Once installed, you have a complete workstation experience right out of the box, without needing to manually add a desktop environment afterward.

One of the biggest advantages is the support lifecycle. AlmaLinux 10 is supported through May of 2030, whereas Fedora releases typically receive support for around 13 months. That means significantly fewer major upgrades over the life of the system. For a workstation that mainly exists to run development tools and administrative utilities, that’s an appealing tradeoff.

After spending time with AlmaLinux on a daily basis, one thing became clear: the idea that AlmaLinux shouldn’t be used on desktops or laptops simply doesn’t hold up. The GNOME edition works remarkably well, and in my experience everything functioned exactly as expected. The fact that the project provides dedicated desktop images is further evidence that workstation use is a supported and intentional use case.

Of course, there are tradeoffs. Because AlmaLinux prioritizes stability, many packages are older than what you’ll find in distributions such as Fedora. If having the latest GNOME release and the newest software is important to you, Fedora may be a better fit. If you’d rather have a longer support lifecycle and fewer major upgrades, AlmaLinux becomes a very compelling option.

For me, the answer depends on the machine. My primary workstation benefits from newer software because I cover Linux professionally and need to stay current with the latest developments. But for a development system that’s mainly used to write code, manage infrastructure, and run administrative tools, the latest desktop environment isn’t nearly as important.

As I continued testing, I discovered some unexpected advantages.

One example is NVIDIA support. Installing the proprietary NVIDIA driver on AlmaLinux is surprisingly straightforward and can be done with a single command. While Fedora barely supports Nvidia users at all – forcing users to install a third party repository and jump through unnecessary hoops to get up and running, AlmaLinux provides a very streamlined experience for getting the driver installed and ready to use.

But the biggest surprise came when I started setting up my Thelio Mira for video production.

DaVinci Resolve has historically been one of the more frustrating applications to deploy on Linux. Official support is limited, installation requirements can be restrictive, and getting everything working often involves following lengthy guides or community-written workarounds.

What surprised me was discovering that the AlmaLinux community has already invested significant effort into solving this problem. Through one of the project’s SIGs, there’s tooling available specifically for content creators that simplifies the installation of applications such as DaVinci Resolve.

In my case, I installed the required package, used it to deploy DaVinci Resolve, and was editing video in short order. I did encounter a few minor issues, which I’ll be reporting upstream, but the overall experience was dramatically easier than what I’ve encountered on many other distributions.

Once everything was configured, I was rendering 4K videos in just a fraction of the time I was accustomed to. More importantly, the entire setup process felt like it was designed with creators in mind.

That’s not something I expected when I started evaluating AlmaLinux as a desktop operating system, but it’s one of the reasons the distribution left such a strong impression on me.

Overall

Overall, what I’ve found is that the myth that AlmaLinux OS is only for servers is not only untrue, desktop support is actually a priority for the project. We have special interest groups that work on making the experience better for desktop users, even going as far as to facilitate creative workflows directly. As far as I know, no other distro does this at the level AlmaLinux does. And sure, the tradeoff is that packages are older, but when it comes to my development and editing PC’s, those are two that I don’t care if they’re current or not. I just need to get my work done and create content, and AlmaLinux absolutely does a fantastic job.