CLOUD云知道
Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 is not the same as CentOS.
Here’s a clear explanation:
✅ What is Alibaba Cloud Linux 3?
- Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 is an operating system developed and maintained by Alibaba Cloud.
- It is optimized for cloud environments, especially for use on Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances.
- It is binary-compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and, by extension, CentOS Stream.
- It is free to use on Alibaba Cloud, with long-term support provided by Alibaba.
❌ Is Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 “CentOS”?
No. While it shares similarities:
- It is not CentOS.
- It is not based on CentOS (especially not CentOS 7 or CentOS 8, which are older).
- Starting with version 3, Alibaba Cloud Linux is aligned more closely with CentOS Stream (which is upstream of RHEL), but it is still a distinct distribution.
Key Features of Alibaba Cloud Linux 3:
- High performance and security optimizations for cloud workloads.
- Regular updates and patches from Alibaba.
- Fully compatible with software that runs on RHEL/CentOS/Scientific Linux.
- Integration with Alibaba Cloud monitoring, operations, and virtualization technologies.
Why the Confusion?
Because Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 is RPM-based and uses yum/dnf, and because it’s often used as a drop-in replacement for CentOS/RHEL in the cloud, people may refer to it casually as “like CentOS.” But technically, it is its own OS.
Summary:
🟡 Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 is NOT CentOS, but it is designed to be a modern, cloud-optimized, drop-in alternative to RHEL/CentOS systems — especially useful now that CentOS 8 has reached end-of-life and CentOS Stream has become the upstream version.
If you’re using it on Alibaba Cloud, you get strong performance and support directly from Alibaba.
Let me know if you want help comparing it with Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, or CentOS Stream!