Alma LinuxWorkstation

General Discussion & Chat
1

Can we install Alma Linux as a Workstation and what would be the methods

thank you

2

I’ve been doing exactly that for a month or two now (since Alma Beta). Just install it as normal and select the packages you require. Ensure you select the workstation option to get all the GUIs and display management loaded. I’ve also added:

  • Audacious (so that you can listen to CDs)
  • firewall-applet
  • hplip (if you have HP printers)
  • mailx
  • gimp (if you handle images)
  • zoom
  • units
  • fuse-expat
  • ntfs-3g

You’ll also need

  • elrepo-release
  • epel-release
  • rpmfusion-free-release
  • rpmfusion-nonfree-release
    to access these repos.

I’ve also used group install to add

  • “KDE Plasma Workspaces” since I can’t get on with Gnome
  • Multimedia (which provides codecs and the like)
  • "–with-optional Office Suite and Productivity " to get a full installation of LibreOffice.

HTH.

4 Likes
3

Hello

I was wondering if anyone has a perfect (Alma) desktop guide or any links they could share which could help in creating one?

I’ve been using these for a basis which are very old now:

After a few months trying out Fedora and CentOS Stream 8 I’ve moved back to Alma. I’ve found it to be rock solid and with the addition of Flatpaks a very useful OS.

Could this be an area to expand for Alma? A Workstation OS for those who just want to get on with their work.

Would it be possible to have a Alma Workstation section on the forum?

Kind Regards
AC

4

The “perfect” desktop is one which suits you. Find out the functionality you require/like, then see which packages supply this. If you blindly follow someone else’s suggestions then you will have to adapt to their way of working.

1 Like
5

True

Maybe “perfect” is not the right term.

What I’m driving at is it would be nice to have a guide that would allow somebody who maybe from a Windows or lets say an Ubuntu background to be able to set up their fresh Alma install with multimedia codecs and tweaks etc that would allow that person to move to Alma as a daily driver for example. As users of Alma it is in our interest to see it grow and to become accessible all.

Lets try and not get bogged down in semantics

6

But the point is that we see “work” very differently. Give me bash, cat, sed, GNU Emacs, and Firefox and I’m happy. I have no idea what “multimedia codec” is nor see need for “tweaks”, because the default already gives the bash prompt. I might live in blissful ignorance, but I ain’t bovvered.

You are right though, that does not help those who need “codecs” and whatnot. Your target audience are those, who know what they need? The missing piece is then how and if they can get what they want in EL8. How one does use package management; search for content and install it. What conventions repositories use. Which third-party repositories are probably might be necessary and reputable.

Alma has pactically same options as RHEL, CL, and RL.

1 Like
7

jlehtone

Thanks for the input and you are absolutely correct we all see work very differently and please understand I’m not trying to impose any changes to your setup or workflow far from it. Guess what I am trying to say is that it would be nice if there was some kind of guide that would make Alma more approachable to a person from a different OS background.

MartinR basically started one by listing what applications he uses. I use my Alma install as an almost daily driver (I do have Windows installed on a separate drive). I do a lot of remote support and admin plus virtual machine testing. I also have installed Steam for a bit of gaming and GNUCash and other Office apps as well.

From talking to others around me there is a groundswell of people in ‘IT’ and ‘out’ who are getting very tired of Microsoft’s choices being forced upon them and are not happy about the intrusiveness of their practices. These people are just looking for a stable and respectful platform. In the past they would probably considered as Ubuntu users (maybe Mint) but where Canonical are heading is anyone’s guess…

Regards
AC

8

I use my desktop computer at home as an audio workstation for my home studio, as well as a regular desktop box for home user: mail, documents, chat, a few games and so on. Right now I’m only considering Alma, because, well, it is an attractive option. I am currently on Fedora.

I have built this system on CentOS and then on RHEL as well in the recent past
, with the developer subscription. What I want to say, is EL can be a great desktop solution, or workstation, if that sounds more convincing, for someone who wants a reliable and boring system. And there are many of us.

Certainly, you have to enable EPEL and RPMFusion, and then flathub. After that, you really have everything you need. And as an audio workstation and for some video editing it has been just great.

It might be nice to have a sub-community or something, that caters to desktop users. and advices how to do all this - although it’s not rocket science.

1 Like
9

@topyli Sure. We can create a Desktop SIG group. What do you say?

10

I agree, a Desktop SIG would serve not just Alma but also other EL users. However, at this point I am unsure whether I have the time and energy to take part. We’ll see.

11

I am interested in EL on the desktop. Even with EPEL and Flatpak, there are gaps, and I think a Wiki with how-tos on desktop setup would be very helpful.