AlmaLinux beta is available, and it's CentOS with a new coat of paint Jack Wallen checks out the AlmaLinux beta release and is quite surprised with what he found. Image: Jack Wallen Every data center admin knows about what's happened with CentOS. With good reason: CentOS is one of the more popular server platforms on the market, and when someone messes with that sauce, bad things happen. Data Center Must-Reads In the case of CentOS users, good things happen. Because this is open source we're talking about, there was no way CentOS would die a slow and painful death at the hands of Red Hat. Case in point, AlmaLinux.