Amazon Linux Reviews

My primary use case for Amazon Linux is hosting production-grade applications and microservices running on EC2, EKS, and container-based architectures such as Docker and Kubernetes. Amazon Linux provides continuous security and maintenance updates, including rapid vulnerability patches, which helps keep workloads secure with minimal manual effort. Its security hardening features and minimal footprint reduce the attack surface, offering better protection against common threats.

In my previous organization, almost all our servers ran on Amazon Linux, and I worked with it extensively for about five years. In my current role, we continue to use Amazon Linux primarily for cloud migration projects and for running microservices that require a lightweight, AWS-optimized Linux environment.

In my current role at Quantum Integrators, I am involved in migrating SAP workloads and other applications from a private cloud to AWS, and Amazon Linux has been a core part of this process due to its consistent performance, seamless integration with AWS services, and minimal configuration effort during migration.

Amazon Linux has positively impacted our organization by improving security, reducing operational overhead, and providing a stable, AWS-optimized platform for running production workloads. Its continuous security and maintenance updates, along with features like automated patching and a minimal footprint, help us keep our systems protected without requiring heavy manual effort. This has significantly reduced downtime and strengthened our overall security posture.

Because Amazon Linux is designed specifically for EC2, we’ve seen noticeable performance improvements—faster boot times, better networking throughput, and strong compatibility with AWS services like CloudWatch, SSM, and ECR. This has made application deployments smoother and more reliable.

For teams running microservices and containerized applications, Amazon Linux has provided a lightweight, consistent, and high-performance environment for EKS, ECS, Docker, and Kubernetes workloads. Its predictable update cycle and long-term support have also helped reduce version drift and operational complexity across multiple environments.

Overall, Amazon Linux has simplified server management, improved security compliance, lowered maintenance effort, and delivered reliable performance for cloud-native and production workloads.

One of the best features of Amazon Linux is that it is built and optimized specifically for AWS. Since it is an AWS-native operating system, it receives continuous security and maintenance updates directly from Amazon, including rapid vulnerability patches. In Amazon Linux 2023, kernel live patching is also available, which allows critical security updates to be applied without rebooting — a major advantage for production and low-latency applications.

Because Amazon Linux is tuned for EC2 and AWS hardware, we see better performance in terms of networking throughput, boot speed, and I/O, thanks to optimizations for Nitro, ENA networking, and NVMe-backed storage. It is lightweight, secure by default, and has a minimal attack surface, which reduces overall risk and operational overhead.

Another strong feature is its long-term support model. Amazon Linux provides a stable and predictable release cycle, with Amazon Linux 2 offering long-term support and Amazon Linux 2023 offering a 5-year lifecycle per release. This stability is valuable in production environments where consistency and predictable updates matter.

The OS also comes with essential AWS tools preinstalled — such as the AWS CLI, SSM Agent, EC2 Instance Connect, CloudInit, and ENA drivers — which eliminates additional setup and ensures seamless integration with AWS services. It fully supports container and microservices workloads, including Docker, Kubernetes tooling, ECS, and EKS, making it suitable for cloud-native applications.

Although Amazon Linux is primarily CLI-based (as it’s designed as a lightweight server OS), it is extremely efficient for automation-driven environments. The kernel and system parameters can be further optimized for high-performance compute workloads, databases, and web applications by tuning networking settings, file limits, enhanced networking, and memory configurations.

Overall, Amazon Linux delivers a secure, high-performance, and cost-effective environment for AWS workloads. Its native integration, automatic patching, predictable lifecycle, and optimized kernel are the main reasons we prefer it for production servers and large-scale cloud deployments.

AWS provides meaningful cost savings for Amazon Linux workloads through long-term commitment options like Savings Plans and Reserved Instances. Compute Savings Plans offer the most flexibility across EC2, Fargate, and Lambda, while EC2 Instance Savings Plans deliver the best pricing for specific instance families. Standard and Convertible Reserved Instances also help reduce costs based on 1–3 year commitments. These options have helped us optimize our overall compute expenses effectively when running Amazon Linux on EC2.

One improvement for Amazon Linux would be stronger support for running it outside AWS. Although Amazon provides local VM images for VirtualBox and VMware, they are intended mainly for development and testing. Unlike Ubuntu, Debian, or Red Hat, Amazon Linux is not designed or fully supported as a production OS in on-prem or hybrid environments. Expanding official support outside AWS would offer more flexibility for teams that maintain mixed infrastructure.

Another area for improvement is the community ecosystem. Compared to Ubuntu or Red Hat, Amazon Linux has a smaller community and fewer third-party resources or tutorials. A larger ecosystem would make troubleshooting and adoption easier.

Finally, improving backward compatibility between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023—especially around package management (DNF vs yum) and updated toolchains—would simplify upgrades for teams managing large fleets.

I have been using Amazon Linux for approximately 6.5 plus years.

Yes, Amazon Linux is stable. In my experience, the operating system itself has been reliable and consistent across production environments. Even during situations where an AWS Availability Zone faced issues—such as the recent DNS-related outage in one of the US-East-2 Availability Zones—Amazon Linux continued to function normally. The temporary impact was related to the AWS infrastructure, not the OS.

Because my applications run in a high-availability (HA) architecture across multiple Availability Zones, traffic automatically failed over to the healthy zone without downtime. Amazon Linux handled the transition smoothly, which reinforced my confidence in its stability for production workloads. Overall, it has remained secure, stable, and dependable in day-to-day operations.

Amazon Linux is highly scalable because it runs on AWS infrastructure, which allows instances to scale up or down quickly based on workload demand. The OS itself is lightweight and optimized for EC2, so it starts faster and performs consistently during scaling events. When paired with AWS Auto Scaling groups or container platforms like EKS and ECS, Amazon Linux can be launched in large numbers within minutes to handle traffic spikes.

A major benefit is the elasticity provided by AWS—resources can be increased when needed and released when demand decreases, which helps control cost. This avoids the limitations of traditional on-premise systems where scaling requires purchasing new hardware. In daily operations, Amazon Linux has been reliable and efficient for applications that require quick scaling and consistent performance across large fleets of EC2 instances.

I would rate AWS customer service 10 out of 10. I have used the AWS Support Center multiple times, and in most cases a support engineer has responded within a few minutes. This has been consistent not only for Amazon Linux–related issues but also for other AWS services such as EC2, S3, and databases.

AWS support has been available 24/7 in my experience, and the engineers are knowledgeable, quick to troubleshoot, and clear in their guidance. They provide step-by-step solutions, help identify the root cause, and ensure the issue is resolved efficiently. Overall, AWS customer service has been reliable, responsive, and extremely helpful whenever we needed assistance.

Positive

Yes, I’ve seen ROI with Amazon Linux. It integrates smoothly with other AWS services and tools we use, including Jenkins pipelines, which reduces setup time and simplifies CI/CD operations. Since Amazon Linux is free and doesn’t require any additional licensing, it provides immediate cost savings compared to paid Linux distributions.

The long-term support (LTS) model, consistent security patching, and predictable release cycles also reduce the operational effort required to maintain servers. These factors help lower maintenance costs and improve stability, which contributes to overall ROI in our production environment.

Before choosing Amazon Linux, we also worked with other Linux distributions like Ubuntu and Red Hat. While these flavors are reliable and widely used, our workloads were already heavily dependent on AWS services such as EC2, S3, CloudWatch, IAM, and VPC. Because of this, Amazon Linux became the natural fit for us. It integrates seamlessly with the AWS ecosystem and provides an optimized experience for EC2-based applications.

Compared to other Linux distributions, the main differences we noticed were in the level of integration and performance tuning. Amazon Linux comes with AWS-tuned kernel parameters, ENA networking optimizations, and built-in tools like the AWS CLI, SSM Agent, and CloudInit. This allowed our workloads to run more efficiently with lower CPU overhead and faster boot times.

Ubuntu and Red Hat offer larger communities, more package availability, and broader on-premise support, which are advantages in hybrid environments. However, Amazon Linux is lightweight, stable, secure by default, and specifically optimized for AWS hardware. Since our entire infrastructure relies on AWS services, choosing Amazon Linux simplified management, improved performance, and aligned better with our cloud-native architecture.

I would rate Amazon Linux a 9 out of 10. In my experience using it for production workloads over the past several years, Amazon Linux has been stable, lightweight, and well-optimized for AWS environments. The built-in integration with AWS services and continuous security updates makes it easy to manage, especially when working across EC2, EKS, and containerized applications. Overall, it has been reliable and efficient for the type of workloads I handle on a daily basis.

My main use case for Amazon Linux is a reliable and cost-effective operating system for hosting web applications on EC2 instances. A specific example is deploying a standard LAMP stack—Linux, Apache, MariaDB, and PHP—to run a dynamic database-driven web application for a training lab.

As a user data scripting target, I find it a predictable environment for running user data scripts to automate the installation of web services like Apache HTTPd and database services. Amazon Linux's seamless integration with EC2 and inclusion in the free tier make it the default choice for hands-on labs and proof of concept projects within the AWS ecosystem. It serves as the operating system layer where network configurations like security groups and rules for HTTP and SSH are ultimately applied to enable application access.

Amazon Linux offers the best features as it is built to work perfectly with AWS services and tools like EC2, Systems Manager, and IAM roles right out of the box. The operating system is tuned specifically for the EC2 environment, offering stable performance with no extra licensing costs. Both Amazon Linux 2 and 2023 offer years of security updates and maintenance, making for a reliable choice for production workloads. It comes with a lockdown default configuration and receives timely security patches directly from AWS, simplifying maintenance.

My experience with Amazon Linux's security features highlights that security is practical and deployed integrated with the AWS environment, which is the main strength compared to other operating systems I have used. The newer Amazon Linux 2023 is very lean; the fact that core packages like a database service were not even in the default repository is a security feature in itself as it reduces the attack surface by not installing unnecessary software. This represents a more aggressive security posture than a standard Ubuntu and CentOS installation, which often comes with more packages. The most critical security layer I interacted with was the EC2 security group. Amazon Linux is designed to rely on the external firewall for primary network defense, and my troubleshooting proved this. The server was completely unreachable via SSH until I explicitly allowed port 22. This is a more robust and manageable approach than relying solely on an internal OS firewall like iptables or firewalld, which is the primary method on on-premises servers. Additionally, the instance defaults to requiring IMDSv2, the secure metadata service, which is a significant security enhancement over older systems and shows that AWS is pushing best practices by default, whereas on other operating systems, you might have to manually harden similar services.

My experience with Amazon Linux's performance and reliability are excellent and they are arguably its strong selling points. On performance, even on a small T2 micro or T3 micro instance, the operating system is incredibly responsive. Boot times are fast and package management with both YUM on Amazon Linux 2 or DNF on Amazon Linux 2023 is snappy. When running the web server, Apache started instantly and PHP applications served pages with no noticeable lag. The performance is clearly optimized for EC2 hardware it runs on, feeling lightweight and efficient. Reliability has been flawless throughout the entire troubleshooting process, which involved installing and removing packages, starting and stopping services, and running a live web application; the operating system itself never once crashed, hung, or produced unexpected kernel-level errors. It remained stable and practically predictable. Even when my own scripts and commands failed, the operating system handled those failures gracefully, providing clear error messages such as unit not found or no such file or directory that were crucial for debugging. It proved to be a rock-solid foundation even when the software running on top of it was being misconfigured. In short, Amazon Linux performed exactly as would be expected from a purpose-built cloud operating system. It is fast, stable, and gets out of your way so you can focus on your application.

I think Amazon Linux can be improved, particularly in that the package names for core services like MariaDB should be consistent between major versions. For example, the MariaDB server is available in Amazon Linux 2 but is absent from Amazon Linux 2023 default repositories. This lack of consistency complicates migration and breaks existing automation scripts.

In discussing the needed improvements, I note that Amazon Linux 2023 is very minimal, but it is not immediately obvious that essential packages like a database server are missing from the default repositories. Better documentation or a web server package group would be helpful. While newer tools like DNF and systemctl are standard, providing more robust legacy links or clear migration guides for YUM and service check config would ease the transition for users accustomed to Amazon Linux 2.

I have been working in my current field for over twenty years, and I previously worked in telecommunications.

Amazon Linux is exceptionally stable. Throughout the entire troubleshooting process, which involved incorrect scripts, failed package installations, starting and stopping services, and finally running a live web application, the operating system itself never once faltered. It handled every error gracefully, providing clear feedback without crashing or becoming unresponsive. The stability of the underlying operating system was the one constant that allowed me to diagnose and fix the problems at the application and configuration layer. It proved to be a rock-solid and reliable foundation.

Amazon Linux's scalability is excellent because it is designed to be a core component of AWS's automated and scalable architecture. It is a lightweight minimal operating system that boots quickly, making it perfect for auto-scaling groups where new instances need to be launched rapidly in response to traffic. Its real scalability comes from its seamless integration with AWS tools like CloudFormation, Auto Scaling, and user data scripts, which allow me to deploy and configure hundreds of identical ready-to-use instances automatically.

I previously used a different solution, often opting for Ubuntu server. I chose Ubuntu initially because of its massive community support, excellent documentation, and user-friendliness of its APT package manager. It is a fantastic general-purpose operating system that is easy to learn and widely used, making it a great starting point. The switch to Amazon Linux for this lab was driven by the context of the Amazon ecosystem, and the primary reason for switching was to use the solution that is natively built, optimized, and supported by the cloud provider itself.

While my experience was in a training lab context and not a large-scale commercial deployment, I can say there is a clear return on investment in terms of time saved and operational efficiency, which directly translates to cost savings. I do not have hard financial metrics, but I can share this key observation.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is straightforward as the pricing is simple; it is free. Amazon Linux is provided by AWS at no additional cost. I only pay for the EC2 instance and any other AWS resources I use, but the operating system itself has no licensing fees, which is a significant advantage over commercial operating systems like Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Windows servers, which incur extra hourly charges. There is zero setup cost associated with the operating system as it is available as a standard Amazon Machine Image, an AMI, directly in the EC2 launch console.

I briefly evaluated other options available with the AWS EC2 launch console, primarily Ubuntu server. My thought process was that Ubuntu server was a strong contender. I have prior experience with it and it is known for its extensive documentation and massive community support. For a general-purpose web server, it is a very reliable and popular choice. Amazon Linux 2023 was the other main option. The key factor that made me choose it over Ubuntu for this specific task was that it is the native solution that is provided and maintained by AWS itself. My goal was to learn the AWS ecosystem, so using the native, purpose-built operating system seemed like the most logical and correct path for a lab environment.

Based on my hands-on experience, automating tasks on Amazon Linux is incredibly powerful, though it is easy depending heavily on which version you are using.

Amazon Linux's compatibility with third-party applications and tools is excellent as it is an RPM-based distribution, closely related to CentOS and RHEL. This means it has excellent compatibility with the vast ecosystem of software packages for that world. As I observed, standard applications like Apache HTTPD, PHP, and their various modules are readily available in the official repositories. The installation process is straightforward using the native package manager, YUM or DNF. On Amazon Linux 2, MariaDB was a first-class citizen, making it perfectly compatible. The issue faced on Amazon Linux 2023 was not an incompatibility with MariaDB itself, but a packaging and distribution choice by AWS to not include it in the default repositories. If I were to compile it from source or find a third-party repository, it would likely run without issue.

My advice to others looking into using Amazon Linux is to verify your version, master the AWS ecosystem, not just the operating system, and adopt a minimalist mindset. For the first option, verifying your version is the most critical piece of advice. The differences between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023 are significant. Before running any script or following any tutorial, it is important to confirm which version you are using.

My journey with Amazon Linux has been a perfect real-world lesson in cloud computing. It is an ecosystem where every layer is interconnected. The operating system is not just an operating system; it is a piece of a larger puzzle that includes networking, security, automation, and package management. While the initial incompatibility between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023 was a source of frustration, it ultimately forced me to learn and appreciate that puzzle. It taught me that being a cloud professional is not just about knowing how to run common commands; it is about understanding why they might fail and how to diagnose issues from the firewall all the way down to the file permissions. My final thought is that Amazon Linux is an excellent operating system, but its true value is as a learning tool. It perfectly embodies the power and complexity of the AWS environment. It can be challenging, but mastering its quirks provides a much deeper and more practical understanding of how to build resilient and automated solutions in the cloud. I would rate this product an eight out of ten.

My primary use case was Amazon Linux as the default operating system for EC2 instances supporting Docker-based container deployments, CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Kubernetes worker nodes, back-end application servers, and monitoring and logging agents. I used Amazon Linux as an operating system in the service known as Amazon EC2 in Amazon Web Services. Our workflow typically involved provisioning EC2 instances with Amazon Linux, configuring IAM roles, installing Docker and runtime dependencies, setting up services, and deploying applications via automated CI/CD pipelines. Amazon Linux acted as the core layer in our cloud architecture. After provisioning EC2 instances, we used yum as the package manager to install and manage system dependencies. Security updates were applied automatically through AWS managed repositories, ensuring compliance and organizational security standards. Amazon Linux was used for both learning projects and production-like client deployments. Client identities cannot be disclosed, but its predictable update cycle and stability made it suitable for long-running services.

We used Amazon Linux for Docker daemon and container runtimes, for Jenkins agents and build servers, for NGINX and many back-end services, for CloudWatch agents for metrics, and for log collection. During my internship at Cognizant, I extensively worked with Amazon Linux as the primary operating system for workloads deployed on AWS. Amazon Linux served as the base OS for EC2 instances, running Docker containers, CI/CD tools, monitoring agents, and back-end services. Amazon Linux is a purpose-built Linux distribution maintained by AWS, optimized for AWS infrastructure, and designed to deliver long-term stability and enhanced security. The tight integration with native AWS services provides a production-ready environment with minimal overhead, making it suitable for enterprise-grade cloud deployments. It significantly reduces operational complexity in AWS environments. A solid understanding of Linux system administration and AWS fundamentals is required for efficient usage.

I strongly recommend learning Linux system administration fundamentals and AWS core services such as EC2, IAM, VPC, and CloudWatch for setting up the instance and giving basic permissions for users to use it, and security and network basics. When combined with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and AWS infrastructure, Amazon Linux becomes a powerful and reliable operating system for cloud-native applications.

The best features Amazon Linux offers is that it has many packages installed as an operating system. I can directly use tools such as Docker runtime, Jenkins, and any DevOps features such as Ansible and many other tools. I can directly access it in the Linux environment using Amazon Linux. What stood out to me and made my experience better were the security updates. I continue to receive security updates so that bugs cannot come through the system.

Technical benefits include the AWS-optimized kernel, which is tuned for better EC2 performance, native IAM integration for secure access without static credentials, and CloudWatch compatibility for system-level monitoring. It has a security-first design, including SE Linux support and rapid patching. Amazon Linux reduces operational risk by minimizing incompatibilities between the OS and AWS infrastructure.

Amazon Linux is highly stable. In my experience, EC2 instances run continuously for long periods without unexpected OS failures. Combined with AWS managed infrastructure, it provides enterprise-grade reliability suitable for production workloads. Amazon Linux scales efficiently with AWS. It supports horizontal scaling using EC2 Auto Scaling groups and vertical scaling by resizing instance types. It performs consistently under high CPU, memory, and input-output workloads. It is well-suited for microservices and container platforms and for high-traffic back-end systems.

From a technical perspective, Amazon Linux could improve in broader availability of third-party packages, simplified system-level troubleshooting tools, and more beginner-focused system administration documentation. New users often need time to understand the permissions of Linux, networking, system services, and AWS security models together.

Amazon Linux has some limitations, such as a smaller package ecosystem compared to Ubuntu. It requires deep Linux knowledge for troubleshooting. The AWS-centric design makes it less portable outside AWS.

I am not currently using Amazon Linux, but I used it during my entire internship with Cognizant, probably for five to six months.

Amazon Linux is highly stable. In my experience, EC2 instances run continuously for long periods without unexpected OS failures. Combined with AWS managed infrastructure, it provides enterprise-grade reliability suitable for production workloads.

Amazon Linux scales efficiently with AWS. It supports horizontal scaling using EC2 Auto Scaling groups and vertical scaling by resizing instance types. It performs consistently under high CPU, memory, and input-output workloads.

Regarding community support and customer services, AWS provides extensive documentation and security advisors for Amazon Linux. Most issues can be resolved using official AWS documentation, AWS knowledge bases, community forums, and internal support teams.

Previously, I used general-purpose Linux distributions such as Ubuntu. I switched to Amazon Linux because it is fully optimized for AWS infrastructure. It integrates more naturally with AWS services, and it provides long-term support without license costs.

The initial setup is moderately complex. Launching an EC2 instance with Amazon Linux is straightforward, but configuring IAM roles, network security such as setting up VPC and security groups, and user permissions and services requires some foundational Linux and AWS knowledge. Once configured, daily operations are efficient and low-maintenance.

Amazon Linux delivers a positive return on investment by eliminating OS licensing costs, reducing maintenance overhead, improving operational stability, and accelerating DevOps and deployment workflows. While specialized knowledge is required, the long-term cost and reliability benefits outweigh the learning curve.

Amazon Linux is provided at no additional charge by AWS. This means I will not pay anything extra for the OS itself. AWS distributes and maintains Linux images free of licensing fees. Although Amazon Linux itself is free, I still incur AWS usage charges for the services I host on it.

If I am a new AWS customer, the AWS Free Tier typically includes, for the first six months, micro instances such as t2.micro or t3.micro for free, so I can use that.

Amazon Linux is an operating system, and I can install any of the other tools such as DevOps tools and other back-end services, back-end servers, and also AWS tools. I primarily used it in an EC2 instance, and an EC2 instance can be combined with any AWS tool, per my knowledge.

Amazon Linux is open to all AWS services. I can integrate any AWS service using Amazon Linux.

It is a cloud service that I use. The updates will be done by Amazon. I do not need to do anything. Amazon and AWS will handle the updates of Amazon Linux.

I rated this product nine out of ten.

The best features Amazon Linux offers include remote sharing features such as AWS Systems Manager Session Manager. This allows our remote DevOps team to share secure terminal access to an instance via the browser, which eliminates the need for us to manage SSH keys or open port 22. This makes it much easier and safer for remote collaboration and troubleshooting.

Amazon Linux has significantly improved our security and deployment speed. By using an OS that is secure by default and pre-integrated with AWS tools, our team spends less time on basic configuration and more time on high-value application development. Around 75% of our time has been reduced since the basic hardening concepts are reduced. We do not need to apply all the hardenings to the new VMs that we are creating. By default, the image provided by Amazon has hardening applied, so our 75% of time has been reduced and has been allocated to application development purposes.

Amazon Linux could be improved by providing more third-party software packages. They could expand the repositories for many cutting-edge development tools that are not included in the core release yet. I feel Amazon Linux offers the best balance of modern features and security. Making sure about the kernel live patching is a great game changer that it is already offering. So there is still room for improvement.

I have been using Amazon Linux for about three years as our primary operating system for hosting production workloads and cloud-native applications on AWS.

Amazon Linux is extremely stable. AWS provides long-term support for versions such as Amazon Linux 2, and the newer Amazon Linux 2023 is designed with a predictable release cycle. Since it is purpose-built for the cloud, it lacks the bloat of traditional desktop-focused distributions, which leads to fewer crashes and higher uptime.

Amazon Linux is built for hyperscale because it is highly optimized for the AWS Nitro System and lightweight in nature. We can launch hundreds of instances in an auto-scaling group. It scales effortlessly from the smallest nano instance to high-performance computing clusters.

The customer support for Amazon Linux is providing great help. All the requirements that we give to them are met immediately with their assistance, and they are doing a great job.

We previously used CentOS. We switched to Amazon Linux because we wanted an OS with a more predictable lifecycle and tighter integration with AWS support. Moving to a distribution that is officially maintained by Amazon gave us better peace of mind regarding long-term security patches and performance tuning.

The experience with Amazon Linux pricing, setup cost, and licensing was seamless. The standard Amazon Linux image is provided for free by AWS. We have used the AWS Marketplace to deploy the CIS hardened versions of Amazon Linux. The licensing is straightforward and billing is consolidated directly into our AWS account, which makes the procurement very easy.

I purchased Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace.

The ROI with Amazon Linux is high because there are zero licensing fees. By switching the compute fleet from a paid distribution to Amazon Linux, we have reduced our OS-related overhead cost by 100%. Additionally, optimized performance has allowed us to run the same workloads on slightly smaller instance types, saving us roughly 10% on monthly compute spend.

Before choosing Amazon Linux, CentOS was the major solution we considered, but we finally ended up choosing Amazon Linux.

My advice for others looking into using Amazon Linux is to embrace Amazon Linux 2023 for all new projects. It offers the best balance of modern features and security. The live kernel patching is a great feature that Amazon Linux offers for people who are going to use the system securely without having a scheduled maintenance window for reboots.

Amazon Linux is truly a performance-first choice for anyone operating in the cloud. It turns the operating system from a management burden into a strategic advantage, providing a high-security environment without the premium price tag of other enterprise Linux distributions. I would rate this product a 9 out of 10.

We primarily use Amazon Linux for the deployment of Amazon machine instances. We also use it for loading up our packages for building Docker images inside it and for many different cases where we usually utilize it.

Recently, we used Amazon Linux to host running web servers using Apache and Nginx, and we were also working on a project for deploying some backend services like Node.js, Python, and Ruby. We hosted some APIs and microservices on these instances. We are using it as the default common operating system for the Amazon EC2 instances, and it helps us in many different ways, especially since our EKS cluster is a self-provisioned cluster, as we are using Amazon Linux instances as the provisioned instances.

The positive impact of Amazon Linux on my organization is significant, as it has improved organizational security by closing known vulnerabilities quickly, reducing the risk of hacking and malware, resulting in fewer security incidents and lower breach risk. Financially, Amazon Linux is cost-effective and prevents costly data breaches and downtimes, saving considerable money and protecting the company's revenue. It also simplifies compliance and audits such as HIPAA, making it easy for us to get audit approvals while ensuring the organization stays legally compliant and increases system stability by fixing bugs and kernel issues.

The best features that Amazon Linux offers, based on my day-to-day activities, are that it is optimized for AWS. It is tuned for EC2 instances, has fast boot times, and works seamlessly with AWS services including EC2, EBS, S3, and IAM. It is also free with no licensing cost, does not require a subscription, and is included in AWS usage, making it cost-effective. Amazon Linux 2 offers five years of support, includes a lot of security patches, and has secure defaults. I find it valuable that even the kernel is optimized for efficient memory and CPU management.

In my day-to-day work, the features of Amazon Linux help significantly, especially with system stability and performance. Additionally, the pre-built AMI images in Amazon Linux are easy to create, and creating custom AMIs is straightforward. It is also developer-friendly and cloud DevOps-friendly. The package management is stable, using YUM and AWS-maintained repositories. Security features assist us as a company since security teams detect vulnerabilities, and security issues reported show common vulnerability exposures, providing reports almost through using Trivy while utilizing the EC2 instance. AWS can analyze those vulnerabilities, implement fixes, and test to ensure the systems remain stable.

Speaking of challenges I faced with Amazon Linux, some other use cases I used it for include building containers that I take and store in my Amazon ECR, and the main challenge I usually faced was vendor lock-in, as the design is mainly for AWS. It has limited optimization and support outside AWS, and for us to migrate loads to another cloud, it requires many changes. The community support is also limited because it is smaller compared to Ubuntu or Debian, and there are fewer third-party tutorials and troubleshooting guides for Amazon Linux, so we must heavily rely on AWS documentation. It is still a great tool but has a learning curve and cannot really be compared to other Linux distributions.

Although I am a DevOps engineer and do not have specific metrics readily available, I am aware that patch deployment time is notably efficient, as critical patches are usually applied within less than 48 hours from release. For unpatched common vulnerability exposures, the instances of these were near zero for high or critical CVEs. This assures efficiency and reveals that we did not experience many security incidents due to unpatched systems, although I do not have specific figures for that.

Personally, from my own experience with Amazon Linux, I can suggest improving the patch compliance rate by automating patching using the systems manager patch, scheduling automatic patch windows, and enforcing patch baselines to achieve higher compliance and fewer missed systems. Standardizing operating system images by using golden AMIs with the latest images could also help, as new systems are built by default while removing unused software would be beneficial.

Further improvements needed for Amazon Linux include ensuring compatibility beyond AWS, which would be very useful, as well as enhancing GUI support since it is primarily focused on server workloads. A better graphical user interface based on admin tools would be great, and providing more frequent runtime updates for languages such as Python, Node.js, and Java, which currently lag behind in their latest releases, would also be beneficial. Additionally, improving monitoring and reporting features while integrating patch and security dashboards would be useful.

I have been using Amazon Linux for a year now.

Amazon Linux is really stable. As I highlighted, it has higher reliability and fewer crashes and issues, as well as a better security posture with less risk of security breaches.

Amazon Linux handles scalability well for my needs. Especially when integrated with autoscaling groups on ECS and EKS, it scales effectively, with minimal problems from my experience. Even the cooling down process after scaling out or scaling down does not cause many headaches, and you only pay for what you use, which makes it great.

For customer support, we are on a support plan maintained by AWS. The team I am working with mainly uses the developer plan, while those in production often use the enterprise plan for dedicated support and architectural help. The support primarily covers installation issues, operating system problems, and networking, and while they provide helpful resources such as GitHub links and blogs for general issues, we often conduct our own research, as our company has experts working with Linux in the infrastructure.

Negative

I have been using Amazon Linux ever since I joined the company; therefore, I have not used a different solution.

Amazon Linux is best suited for EC2 workloads, ECS, EKS containers, and AWS-native applications. You can use it for production workloads because it is stable and secure, and without license fees, you can expect lower costs compared to Red Hat Linux and Windows, providing a great return on investment for cloud-native workloads. If your application requires very new software versions, you may need additional repositories or manual installations, such as Docker containers using custom images. The ability to patch regularly, apply patches on time, and utilize the patch manager is a key advantage. Amazon Linux offers many use cases and is recommended for microservices, making it great for security purposes by using IAM roles and security groups properly while integrating with CloudWatch for monitoring.

Compared to Ubuntu and other Linux distributions, Amazon Linux has worse support, which often leads us to rely heavily on documentation. Additionally, there are fewer third-party tutorials available for Amazon Linux. Furthermore, it still needs improved package availability, as some newer software versions are missing. Amazon Linux has smaller repositories than Ubuntu, so providing more up-to-date packages and expanding official repositories would help. Easier version upgrades and stronger multi-cloud support beyond AWS, reducing vendor lock-in, would enhance its overall effectiveness.

We usually purchase Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace.

Since I joined the company, they have been using Amazon Linux, and I would not know what specific options were previously evaluated. However, Amazon Linux was chosen for its faster deployment times, which means less configuration time for the operating systems and quicker time to market. It has lower maintenance costs, requires less admin workload, offers automated patching, and is highly reliable with fewer crashes and issues.

I rate Amazon Linux at seven out of ten on an overall scale.

In my day-to-day work, the main use cases for Amazon Linux involve a wide variety of tasks with a common theme of optimization for Amazon Cloud. Since recently updating my project, I have been using it for automation to monitor CPU utilizations and hosting backend services including REST APIs and web applications on EC2 instances, running production microservices that integrate with services including Amazon ECS and AWS Lambda, and as the defaulting operating system for EC2 instances in a SaaS platform. Additionally, I use Amazon Linux as base images for Dockerfile, node groups for Amazon EKS Kubernetes clusters, and powering CI/CD pipelines acting as Jenkins agents or building servers, using it with infrastructure as code to spin up consistent environments for development, staging, and production.

The most valuable use case involving my work is the scripting that runs automatically via cron, which is a time-based scheduler on Amazon Linux EC2 instances. The script accomplishes mainly two groups: resource dashboarding and proactive monitoring. In resource dashboarding, I utilize the command line interface, specifically AWS CLI, to list all running resources including EC2 instances, S3 buckets, Lambda functions, and configurations to implement in the daily dashboard sent to management. Additionally, I check logs and help prevent unexpected storage issues, and these are the activities I have been using in my daily work.

In my organization, Amazon Linux is deployed using a multi-cloud hybrid approach, supporting all four environments we have mentioned. Public cloud is the most common deployment, where I use Amazon Linux directly on Amazon EC2 to scale from small web servers to massive machine learning clusters. I also deploy it on private premises for added security.

I primarily use AWS for my Amazon Linux deployments.

In my experience, the best features Amazon Linux offers are the resource dashboarding and proactive monitoring systems that I have been utilizing in day-to-day work. Most cases are centered around using a Linux base image for containerizing applications, particularly in production on ECS or by deploying on ECS, and I am deploying my servers in EKS. Currently, I also manage automation scripting and container-based images to find EC2 instances and what servers are running in the background as part of my day-to-day activities using Amazon Linux.

Since using Amazon Linux, I have noticed a positive impact on my organization as it has become an industry standard for AWS native development. The benefits include much better resource isolation and more accurate monitoring for memory, CPU, and input-output. It makes running Docker or Kubernetes yield more predictable container performance with fewer out-of-memory kills that are hard to diagnose. Using Amazon Linux smooths the application running on Docker and Kubernetes, making it very efficient for deploying applications on cloud platforms including Amazon, Azure, and GCP.

I see definite areas where Amazon Linux could improve because it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The single biggest pain point for long-time users is the lack of direct in-place upgrades from Amazon Linux to AL2, as moving to a new version requires launching new instances and manually migrating applications instead of simply running a command similar to some DNF system update. A migration tool that could handle the heavy lifting and configurations would save thousands of engineering hours. I have noticed that since 2023 does not support EPEL directly, AWS has introduced supplementary packages for Amazon Linux, which has been an adjustment.

I chose eight out of ten because, while there are many positives, some issues arise at the end of the line for Amazon Linux. I have faced some challenges when deploying clusters in AWS, particularly with some recent updates that have changed since version twenty-three, leading me to believe there is room for improvement.

Amazon Linux is stable and more flexible, allowing easy scalability at no cost. It is designed by the same engineers who created the underlying hardware, EC2, as well as the orchestration services, ECS and EKS, effectively removing many traditional bottlenecks associated with scaling large fleets.

In terms of container scalability, I find it to have deterministic reliability, no broken scale-outs, and it boosts speed and safety in container orchestrations with dynamic scaling. It provides resource control and consistency, contributing to Amazon Linux's reputation for stability.

The customer support for Amazon Linux is good, as they quickly guide me through issues whenever I contact them, resolving problems within a short time.

Before switching to Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three, I typically used Amazon Linux two, Ubuntu, CentOS, and Red Hat. The end of life for those older distributions was a primary reason for switching, as security updates for Amazon Linux are ending in June two thousand twenty-six. Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three provides modern features such as cgroup v2 and systemd-timers that older versions lack, and while Ubuntu is good for development, it is not tuned for AWS hardware out of the box. Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three offers better performance under Graviton chips and significantly faster operations.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Amazon Linux is very straightforward and completely free. I simply select it from the quick start tab when launching an EC2 instance with no additional cost or complex licensing terms to manage. The operating system is free, and I only pay for infrastructure, such as approximately zero cost for a T3 small instance, where the EC2 instances charge about zero point zero two one per hour.

I see that return on investment is usually measured in efficiency gains rather than in a simple monetary form. Since the operating system itself is free and by using Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three, many organizations have been qualifying this transaction through a mix of cloud-based operations.

Since switching to Amazon Linux, I have seen improvements clearly shown in infrastructure metrics. Some wins commonly seen after switching, particularly when moving from general-purpose distributions such as Ubuntu, include approximately twenty to forty percent better price-performance ratio. The outcomes combine massive savings of over one million in under a year by migrating workloads to Graviton-based instances running Amazon Linux, as AL two thousand twenty-three is optimized for ARM at the compiler level, allowing applications to run more effectively and function on smaller instances. I have also noted faster deployments, including a forty to sixty percent reduction in AMI size, significantly faster boot times, and a boost in faster auto-scaling to reduce cold start latencies, with zero downtime regarding patching for critical vulnerabilities.

I evaluated several options, including Ubuntu and CentOS. As previously mentioned, Ubuntu is great for development but not optimized for AWS, and CentOS's move to a streamed model is less stable for production. Many organizations moved to Amazon Linux for a more flexible long-term support cycle.

The biggest advantage I find in using Amazon Linux is the ability to determine updates throughout the version repositories. In older versions, I ran a yum update, but now I can pin different packages based on commands I run. This advantage allows me to test updates in a staging environment and be one hundred percent certain that the exact same packages will be applied in production, eliminating issues where something worked on one machine or worked yesterday. It is also beneficial as it boosts faster boot times, supports Amazon Graviton ARM processors, and optimizes the operating system for those processors. Moreover, it efficiently uses fewer resources including CPU and RAM, allowing my applications to run on smaller, cheaper instance types with secure by default configurations.

I recommend Amazon Linux for its free use, stable performance, faster control, and scalability, making it suitable for everyone.

To clarify, I did not purchase Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace because it is directly provided by AWS at no additional cost, so a purchase or subscription is not required. Unlike many other enterprise Linux distributions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux that require a paid subscription, Amazon Linux is offered by AWS as a free operating system for use on EC2 instances. There is no need to visit the marketplace to buy it.

Overall, I would rate Amazon Linux at an eight out of ten.

Day-to-day, we primarily use Amazon Linux for our application deployments. We mainly use Amazon Linux to manage our Nginx web servers and handle our routine security patching via the DNF package manager. We spend considerable time writing Bash scripts to automate log rotation and monitor resource utilization, ensuring our EC2 instances stay within performance thresholds.

Amazon Linux helps tremendously in this scenario. The routine tasks we perform really stand out because of its tight integration with AWS services such as SSM and IAM, which makes managing permissions and remote access much smoother than on standard distributions such as Ubuntu. I have found that the kernel is specifically tuned for EC2, leading to faster boot times and better resource efficiency during automated deployments.

The best features that Amazon Linux offers are, first, its Security-First design, which is a standout feature, as it comes with a minimal package set that significantly reduces our attack surface from the start. I also really value the version locking and predictable release cycles in AL2023, which gives us the stability we need for long-term production support.

The Security-First design helps us maintain confidence that our instances are not easily compromised because of its security-first approach. The minimal package set significantly reduces our maintenance overhead. During a recent vulnerability scan, we had nearly 40% fewer findings compared to our previous standard images. Regarding version locking, it was invaluable during a major scaling event where we needed to ensure every new instance was bit-for-bit identical, preventing a mid-rollout update from breaking our custom monitoring agents.

We have significantly improved our operational efficiencies by reducing the instance boot time. This directly impacts our organization's efficiency, making our auto-scaling much more responsive during traffic spikes. This streamlined our deployments and helped us maintain high availability with lower compute overhead.

I would like more comprehensive recipes in the documentation for hardening the operating system according to specific compliance standards such as CIS or FedRAMP. On the package side, a more centralized way to request or track the addition of popular community packages would bridge the gap left by the lack of EPEL.

Compared to other Linux distributions, Amazon Linux is significantly more stable for AWS workloads because it is pre-optimized for EC2 hypervisor and includes integrated AWS tools out of the box, compared to general-purpose distributions such as Ubuntu.

The documentation and community support are top-notch. It is deeply integrated with the rest of the AWS ecosystem, making it easy to find specific configuration steps for services such as IAM or EC2.

It handles security and compliance requirements quite well, as the documentation is excellent. The security of Amazon Linux is also excellent, so we do not have to worry about that. The compliance for Amazon Linux is top-notch for our organization.

I would recommend using Amazon Linux without hesitation. In my experience, the customer support is quite reliable. Amazon Linux is quite stable, the documentation is great, and it is tightly integrated with the AWS service, so most of the support comes through the AWS support channel rather than a separate Linux support channel. I would recommend others who are going to use it feel confident using Amazon Linux without hesitation. The overall rating for this product is 9 out of 10.

I have been using Amazon Linux for the last six years.

My main use case for Amazon Linux is that I have set up EC2 machines for our production environment, and we are using Amazon Linux where we have integration with AWS services such as SSM, ECS, and Lambda.

A specific example of how I use Amazon Linux in our production environment is that we have launched an EC2 machine containing the latest Amazon Linux image, and we don't need to purchase a license as it is fully managed by AWS. We don't need to pre-install tools such as AWS CLI, as some agents are already included within Amazon Linux.

I would add that we will directly integrate the ISIS machine over that using Amazon Linux.

One of the best features Amazon Linux offers is integration with AWS services such as ECS, Lambda, SSM, and regular security updates by AWS, along with long-term support and maintenance. We can also use package management as AWS provides update packages inside Amazon Linux, and performance, networking, and I/O patterns are also properly tuned, with no license fees for software we are using inside Amazon Linux as it is officially supported by AWS.

Out of the features I mentioned, I find myself relying most on security and updates, as package management is also available, meaning you don't need to update packages regularly, and performance-wise, there are no network issues.

Regarding the features, I have already mentioned compatibility with AWS tooling, where you don't need to install AWS CLI and some agents inside the EC2 machine since they are pre-installed and there are no fees as it is officially supported by AWS. Performance is good, with no need to focus on security and updates, as regular updates and patches are managed by AWS.

Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization as we have set up production microservices requiring integration with Amazon Linux and AWS cloud workloads, providing us with peace of mind since we don't need to worry about security issues.

Specific outcomes showing how Amazon Linux has helped my organization include reduced costs and improved reliability, as we don't need to worry about license fees since it's fully managed by AWS. Performance-wise, there are no network issues.

I see there's less focus on general purpose in Amazon Linux, with a limited community ecosystem compared to Ubuntu or Fedora, and some third-party tools may be missing from the official repos, with Amazon Linux 1 and 2 differing.

I chose a rating of 8 out of 10 because there are times when package availability is an issue, as some third-party tools may be missing from the official repo, requiring us to enable extra repos or compile from source to update the package.

I have been working in my current field for around 8 plus years.

Amazon Linux is stable.

Amazon Linux's scalability allows it to be scaled at runtime.

The customer support for Amazon Linux is good, as I can raise a support ticket and connect with the support team.

Positive

I did not previously use a different solution; we started with Amazon Linux.

Amazon Linux is deployed in my organization on the AWS private cloud.

We use AWS as our cloud provider.

I purchased Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace.

We have seen a return on investment with Amazon Linux through optimization and integration with AWS services, which saves a lot of time and avoids focusing on security and patch updates as it is managed by AWS. Performance-wise, there are no network issues.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we don't need to pay for licensing costs as it is fully managed by AWS, and setting up the EC2 machine containing Amazon Linux is not that costly.

Before choosing Amazon Linux, I did not evaluate other options since we are continuously using AWS and just set up Amazon Linux.

My advice to others looking into using Amazon Linux is to definitely go with it, as you don't need to worry about different AWS service integrations or security patch updates, which are managed by AWS, and there are no licensing costs as it is fully supported by AWS. I gave this product a rating of 8 out of 10.

My main use case for Amazon Linux is to host and manage applications in AWS environments. I primarily use it for deploying web servers like NGINX and Apache, running application workloads, and integrating security layers such as WAF. I also use it for configuring back-end services that are protected behind platforms like Cloudflare. In addition, I use Amazon Linux for system tasks such as patch management, log analysis, performance tuning, and ensuring secure configurations align with enterprise standards.

In one of my recent projects, I used Amazon Linux on an EC2 instance to host a web application that was protected by Cloudflare. I was responsible for configuring the server by setting up NGINX, managing SSL/TLS certificates, and ensuring secure communication between Cloudflare and the application. I also work on optimizing the server performance and monitoring the logs to identify and troubleshoot issues. During one incident, we observed high traffic causing performance degradation, so I analyzed system and application logs on the Amazon Linux instance. We tuned the configurations and implemented rate-limiting security controls, which helped stabilize the application.

Some of the best features of Amazon Linux are strong integration with AWS, high performance, and built-in security. It is especially optimized for AWS environments, which ensures better performance and stability in EC2 instances. It also integrates seamlessly with services like CloudWatch and Systems Manager, making monitoring and automation much easier. Another key feature is security. Amazon Linux provides regular updates, supports SELinux, and allows easy patch management, which is very important for enterprise environments. Overall, it offers a reliable, secure, and efficient platform for running production workloads in the cloud.

Amazon Linux has positively impacted our organization by improving performance, security, and operational efficiency in our AWS environments. Since it is optimized, we have seen better stability and performance for our application workloads running on EC2 instances. It also simplifies integration with AWS services like CloudWatch, which helps us with monitoring, automation, and patch management. From a security perspective, regular updates and built-in features like SELinux have helped us maintain a strong security posture, especially for enterprise and banking clients. Overall, it has reduced operational overhead, improved system reliability, and enabled us to manage our infrastructure more efficiently at scale.

We have seen several positive outcomes after using Amazon Linux in our environment. From a performance perspective, we observe improved system stability and uptime with fewer incidents related to OS-level issues. This helps us maintain high availability for our applications. In terms of operational efficiency, the integration with AWS services like Systems Manager has reduced manual effort in patching and maintenance, saving a significant amount of time for our team. Additionally, since Amazon Linux optimized for AWS comes at no additional licensing cost, it has helped us reduce the overall infrastructure cost compared to other operating systems. We also reduced the manual effort for patching and maintenance by around 35 to 45 percent using AWS Systems Manager automation.

Amazon Linux is a strong platform, but there are a few areas where it can be improved. One key improvement would be expanding the package repository. Compared to other distributions like Ubuntu, sometimes fewer packages are readily available, which can require manual installation. Another area is documentation and community support, which could be enhanced to make troubleshooting and learning easier, especially for new users. Additionally, improving flexibility for non-AWS environments would make it more versatile for hybrid or multi-cloud use cases.

Improving the package availability and expanding the repository would make Amazon Linux more flexible for different use cases. Enhancing the documentation and community support would help users troubleshoot issues more efficiently, especially for new adopters. Overall, these improvements can make Amazon Linux even more user-friendly and adaptable while maintaining its strong performance and security.

I have been using Amazon Linux for around two to three years as part of my work with AWS-based environments.

Amazon Linux scales very well, especially within AWS environments. Since it is tightly integrated with AWS services, I can easily scale instances up or down based on demand using EC2 auto-scaling and load balancing. In our experience, it handles increasing traffic efficiently without performance degradation, making it suitable for production and high-traffic applications. Overall, it provides a reliable and seamless scaling experience as part of the AWS ecosystem.

I have interacted with the AWS support team for issues related to Amazon Linux, and the experience has been generally positive. The support team is knowledgeable and responsive, especially for critical issues. They provide detailed guidance and help in troubleshooting complex problems efficiently. In most of our cases, we are able to resolve issues quickly with their assistance. The documentation they share is also very helpful. Overall, the support experience has been reliable and professional.

Compared to other Linux distributions like Ubuntu or CentOS, Amazon Linux is more optimized for AWS environments, which gives better performance and seamless integration with AWS services. For example, it works very well with services like Systems Manager, making monitoring, automation, and patching much easier compared to other distributions. However, distributions like Ubuntu have a larger package repository and stronger community support, which makes them more flexible for general-purpose or non-cloud environments. Overall, I would say Amazon Linux is the best for AWS-native workloads, while Ubuntu or CentOS may be better for broader or multi-cloud use cases.

Overall, Amazon Linux has been a reliable and efficient operating system for our cloud environments. Its tight integration with AWS services, strong security posture, and consistent performance make it a solid choice for enterprise workloads. With some improvements in the depth of documentation and package flexibility, it can become even better.

Maintaining and updating Amazon Linux is relatively easy in our environment, mainly due to the integration with AWS services. We use tools like AWS Systems Manager to automate the patch management and updates across multiple instances, which significantly reduces the manual effort. Additionally, the package management using YUM or DNF is straightforward and efficient. Overall, the combination of automation and simple package management makes it easy to maintain and secure an up-to-date environment.

Amazon Linux provides strong security and compliance support, which makes it suitable for regulated environments. It offers regular security updates and integrates well with AWS security services like IAM and CloudWatch. This helps with monitoring, access control, and patch management. Additionally, features like SELinux and secure default configurations help strengthen the overall security posture. In our experience, this has helped us align with enterprise security standards and compliance requirements, especially when working with banking and financial sector clients.

The documentation and learning resources for Amazon Linux are generally good, especially when combined with AWS documentation. There are detailed guides for installation, configuration, and integration with AWS services, which make it easier for new team members to get started. However, compared to distributions like Ubuntu, the community support sometimes requires additional effort during troubleshooting. Overall, the documentation is helpful for onboarding, particularly for teams already familiar with AWS environments.

Amazon Linux provides very good performance and efficient resource usage, especially in an AWS environment. It is lightweight and optimized for EC2 instances, consuming fewer system resources compared to some other operating systems, which helps in improving performance. In our experience, applications run more efficiently, ensuring better stability and lower overhead, particularly for production workloads. Compared to others, the difference may not always be significant, but Amazon Linux performs better when tightly integrated with AWS services.

My advice would be to choose Amazon Linux if you are primarily working in AWS environments, as it is highly optimized for performance, security, and seamless integration with AWS services. I would also recommend leveraging AWS tools like Systems Manager for automation and patching and CloudWatch for monitoring to get the full benefit of the platform. At the same time, it is important to evaluate your use case. If you need a broader package ecosystem or multi-cloud capabilities, you may want to compare it with other distributions like Ubuntu. Overall, for AWS-native workloads, Amazon Linux is a very reliable and efficient choice.

The reason I would not give a full ten out of ten is mainly due to areas like package availability and community support, which can still be improved. I gave this review a rating of eight because overall, it is a very solid and dependable platform.

Amazon Linux serves as my primary platform for hosting Nginx web servers and self-hosted Postgres databases. I have also set up HashiCorp Nomad, Consul, Prometheus, and Grafana on Amazon Linux, utilizing a maximum of self-hosted services including all services and APIs as part of DevOps-managed, self-hosted applications.

In a specific project, I used Amazon Linux for these self-hosted services with a tool called Nomad, which is equivalent to Kubernetes. I created a Nomad Consul setup with worker and master-slave nodes specifically on Amazon Linux, where I set up three Nomad servers, three Nomad workers, and Consul as a service mesh. I built an end-to-end use case on Amazon Linux, utilizing Postgres for self-hosting the database connection, which also runs on Amazon Linux.

I have also set up a Key Vault on Amazon Linux, which is a Kubernetes native solution released by the Linux Foundation. It functions as an RBAC authentication layer for application DevOps-level operations. I set up the Key Vault for our application two days ago, and we are using Postgres for it, both running on Amazon Linux, which is performing excellently.

Amazon Linux offers many excellent features. Compared to other operating systems, Amazon Linux is quicker and faster than CentOS, Ubuntu, or similar alternatives. Amazon Linux natively supports many AWS features, offers long-term support, and regularly updates security.

Setting up monitoring in AWS through CloudWatch monitoring, log monitoring, or alert monitoring is beneficial due to the clear documentation provided by Amazon. I have set up many things throughout my career using Amazon Linux, and it supports many dependency software and open-source software with free licensing, so there is no need for license purchase or dependencies. It supports all technologies including Nomad, Docker, and Kubernetes, along with many programming languages such as Java and Python with numerous agents available for installation, making it an excellent operating system complemented by strong documentation.

The documentation from Amazon has helped me significantly. When I want to set up something in Key Vault for application-level monitoring, I refer to the clear and well-released documentation from Amazon, which is superior compared to other operating systems. This clarity allows me to set things up quickly and upgrade from staging to production easily.

Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization through excellent support. The good support provided helps upgrade effortlessly, and security vulnerabilities are professionally fixed quickly while releasing multiple AMIs. I notice this whenever I see an AMI being upgraded within two weeks, which is beneficial for us. Many open-source supported features are available, and the operational efficiency of upgrading to Amazon Linux compared to other operating systems has been significant. We utilize it extensively.

Amazon is bringing more upgrades through Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023, and I appreciate that the boot time is fast and upgrades are easy, which represents a positive aspect.

Everything is currently good with Amazon Linux for my needs, and I think Amazon is performing excellently. I have not faced any issues, but if there is any concern regarding the security side, I would appreciate proactive addressing, as we use this in production-level operations. It would be good to have prior knowledge of any potential issues. I am also performing OS hardening while expecting proactive addressing of any third-party vulnerabilities linked to bad software in the repository.

I have been working with Amazon Linux from the start of my career, providing six years of experience with Amazon Linux.

Amazon Linux is stable, and I find it performing consistently well overall.

The scalability of Amazon Linux is good. If I want to run any launch template or configuration with more scripts, the booting is very fast, allowing quick scalability without any confusion.

Customer support from Amazon is excellent. They provide extensive support for any obstacles we face and for everything we want to accomplish. When I raise a case with AWS, they assist effectively.

We have been using Amazon Linux from the start.

Before choosing Amazon Linux, we evaluated other options such as Ubuntu because they also provide support and have a competitive market presence compared to other Linux distributions.

We have not purchased Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace since it is offered in the AWS Launchpad itself, and we are using that OS.

In terms of money saved, many operating systems impose charges. We save considerable amounts since we do not have to pay for an OS such as Kali Linux. The free license and support mean we save considerable time launching. With Amazon Linux, selecting and launching instances on a public cloud provider means the machine spins up in fewer than ten seconds, making it efficient.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is quite positive. The pricing is free compared to many other operating systems that charge. I appreciate that there is no license renewal required, and it is a free tier for us, which makes it very convenient. Amazon's straightforward approach on these matters means no additional costs involved, making everything quite comfortable for us.

We use AWS, or Amazon Web Services, as our cloud provider.

Regarding specific outcomes or metrics with Amazon Linux, I can first say that production upgrades enhance security. Amazon Linux runs faster compared to other operating systems such as CentOS, Kali Linux, and Ubuntu, making the startup and boot-up script run fast during launch time.

I rate Amazon Linux a nine out of ten. I choose this rating because I am concerned about the repository possibly containing vulnerability packages, though this could happen with any system.

My advice for others looking into using Amazon Linux is to explore the many features available. Several aspects such as Session Manager for public cloud connection and startup scripts are useful. Security-wise, it is also robust, and various software packages are available in the registry. If something is not found, it is easy to install open-source software. Monitoring applications at a custom CloudWatch level is also supported, so I recommend exploring Amazon Linux first since it is free. Overall, I would rate this product a nine out of ten.