# Rocky Linux

22 Hacker News commenters recommended Rocky Linux and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A free, RHEL-compatible Linux distribution people use as a stable server OS and a CentOS replacement; critics say early releases were rough and not always ready.

## Why people recommend it

- Free clone of RHEL (4 comments): "Rocky Linux or AlmaLinux give you the same base for free and are worth a look" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47919443)) "It'd probably be easier to use a RHEL spinoff like Alma or Rocky Linux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48586260)) "Alma and Rocky are essentially downstream clones of RHEL." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48228917))
- Long-term stability with low maintenance (4 comments): "as long as you pick a good server os (for me that's rocky linux) you can safely update once every six months" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46585601)) "So RHEL, or Debian, Alma, Rocky, offer a lot more stability and less maintenance requirement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47085326)) "still chugging along with no effort from me for 6 months" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104233))
- Chosen by admins for servers (4 comments): "we've actively standardized on Rocky Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49927796)) "My servers choice is RockyLinux 8 or 10." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45919617)) "Gave up and switched to RockyLinux." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47084900))
- Successor to CentOS (2 comments): "Rocky (et. al.) took the old centos role, and I see this as a win/win for everybody." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47114569)) "It’s quite literally the modern day CentOS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813494))

## What people warn about

- Early releases were broken or not ready (2 comments): "shipping broken releases early on and them fighting with users about it instead of fixing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47980893)) "Rocky Linux was not in good enough state" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49813551))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Ubuntu](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ubuntu.md): 560 recommend
- [Debian](https://hackerapproved.com/p/debian.md): 552 recommend
- [Fedora Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fedora.md): 437 recommend
- [Arch Linux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arch-linux.md): 362 recommend
- [Linux Mint](https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux-mint.md): 277 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Rocky Linux", https://hackerapproved.com/p/rocky-linux/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).