--- title: Amazon Linux 2 Reviews meta_title: 'Amazon Linux 2 Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 72 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Amazon Linux 2 works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 72 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-04' parent_category: name: IT Infrastructure url: https://www.g2.com/categories/it-infrastructure --- # Amazon Linux 2 Reviews **Vendor:** terracloudx **Category:** [Operating Systems](https://www.g2.com/categories/operating-system) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 72 ## About Amazon Linux 2 Amazon Linux 2 is a Linux operating system developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide a secure, stable, and high-performance environment for cloud and enterprise applications. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with AWS services, offering a robust platform for developers and IT administrators. Amazon Linux 2 is available at no additional charge and includes long-term support with ongoing security and maintenance updates. Key Features and Functionality: - AWS Integration: Pre-installed packages and configurations facilitate tight integration with AWS services, simplifying the deployment and management of applications. - Long-Term Support: Provides five years of support, ensuring stability and predictability for enterprise applications. - Extras Repository: Offers access to the latest software packages through the Amazon Linux Extras repository, allowing users to install newer versions of popular software without compromising system stability. - On-Premises Use: Available as virtual machine images for VMware, Oracle VM VirtualBox, and Microsoft Hyper-V, enabling on-premises development and testing. - Systemd Support: Includes the systemd init system for efficient process management and service control. - Optimized Kernel and Toolchain: Features an LTS Kernel tuned for enhanced performance on Amazon EC2, along with updated compiler and build toolchain components. - Security Features: Implements default security measures such as limiting remote access, disabling remote root login, and reducing non-critical packages to minimize exposure to vulnerabilities. - Kernel Live Patching: Supports live patching of the Linux kernel, allowing critical and important security updates to be applied without rebooting or downtime. Primary Value and User Solutions: Amazon Linux 2 addresses the need for a secure, reliable, and high-performance operating system tailored for cloud environments. Its deep integration with AWS services streamlines application deployment and management, enhancing developer productivity. The long-term support and regular security updates provide peace of mind for enterprises, ensuring system stability and compliance. Additionally, the availability of virtual machine images for on-premises use allows for consistent development and testing environments, bridging the gap between local and cloud-based operations. ## Amazon Linux 2 Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **long-term support** of Amazon Linux 2, ensuring reliability and stability for their cloud applications. (8 reviews) - Users value the **regular updates** of Amazon Linux 2, ensuring security and performance for cloud workloads. (8 reviews) - Users value the **lightweight and high-performing** nature of Amazon Linux 2, optimizing their AWS workload efficiency. (8 reviews) - Users commend the **lightweight size** of Amazon Linux 2, enhancing performance for efficient cloud workload management. (7 reviews) - Users find Amazon Linux 2 to be **exceptionally easy to use** , facilitating management and application setups effortlessly. (5 reviews) - Stability (5 reviews) - Cloud Computing (3 reviews) - Easy Management (3 reviews) - Free/No Cost (3 reviews) - Users value the **reliability** of Amazon Linux 2, making it a dependable choice for running applications on AWS. (3 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users experience **limited software availability** on Amazon Linux 2, needing additional effort for libraries and configurations. (6 reviews) - Users often face **limited app availability** in Amazon Linux 2, leading to challenges in accessing newer tools and libraries. (4 reviews) - Users note the **strong dependence on AWS** limits Amazon Linux 2's portability and flexibility in non-AWS environments. (3 reviews) - Users experience a **lack of support** for newer packages and find documentation insufficient for advanced configurations. (3 reviews) - Users find issues with **outdated technology** , as core components lag behind other distributions, affecting software compatibility. (2 reviews) - Users find the **command line interface challenging** , especially those unfamiliar with CMD, unlike GUI OS like Windows. (1 reviews) - Users face **integration issues** due to limited support for newer packages and AWS dependency, hindering flexibility. (1 reviews) - Skill Requirements (1 reviews) ## Amazon Linux 2 Reviews ### 1. Amazon Linux provides support for a majority of products and third party vendors, **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nitin S. | Specialist - Cloud and Automation, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Amazon Linux is compatible with almost all the applications I have used so far, hence it is a great product to use. I never find any difficulty while using it and Amazon provides good support and latest updates. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Few commands and functionalities are different and it becomes difficult to search for a solution sometimes when you are stuck in a production issue. **Recommendations to others considering Amazon Linux 2:** No Recommendations **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using Amazon Linux 2 to create VM Instances over AWS cloud and later hosting our applications on the same. ### 2. Cheaper, Secure & fastest way spin up the machines **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Warehousing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Faster to spin a new server, the ability to launch a new server whether be it a Linux box or windows and run the applications at ease gives all of time to focus just on the application rather than worry about the underlying infra. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Not that I can think of, maybe improving a bit more on the Session connect when SSH from open world is not possible, and also make the integration of Session manager and some other products. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** A faster way to deploy the solutions without spending too much time to set up all the infrastructure, and different levels of security, implementing different ways to whitelist & blacklist the traffic, and integrating all such rules at ease. ### 3. Eeasy to learn and use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sattam S. | Software Expert, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 18, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** It's easy to use even for new people , i learned it quickly by some training courses **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** To be honest i didn't go deep with it to judge **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** launching and manage light vm in aws in very reasonable time ### 4. Well rounded Linux distro perfect for most usecases **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** If you're using AWS then the decision to use Amazon Linux 2 is kind of a no brainer. It's fast, modern, and secure and is perfectly capable of running kind of workloads you can throw at it be it standalone servers, containers, or DBs **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Vendor lock in is still a bit of a concern if you're completely dependent on Amazon Linux 2 as it will reduce the chances of portability for your Operating System **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using it test deployment of new software in our dev/ qa environments and use it for our learning systems. It has helped reduce the time to configure our test machines since most essential packages are already available ### 5. Amazon Linux 2 experience **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Varun K. | Webmethods Administrator / SRE, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 25, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Amazon Linux 2 provides a security, high performance environment. This operating system will cover under free tier in AWS cloud **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Nothing much , few commands are not working **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** My regular practical things , I will always choose the Amazon Linux 2 is an OS, which is easy to install the applications and keep working. ### 6. Best and affordable os from amazon **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Riyas T. | Cofounder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Since it is specifically designed for cloud instances, it meets every aspect when we deploy our application. High performance, long term support, maintenance and timely security updates make it as the best os **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Nothing many negative feedbacks. More tweaking can help improve the performance and will reduce crashings. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** Deployed many web applications and web servers in amazon linux 2 powered aws ec2 instances. Performance and stability attracts me ### 7. Amazon linux sever **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** NEVIL RAYAN S. | Software Development Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 22, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** amazon ec2 server can be deployed with multiple operation system like centos and RHEL **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** patching the Linux os with on running task will be difficult **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** ETL process which is python was running smoothly with linux 2 ### 8. Easy to use and managable linux on cloud to deploy your applications **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nilanjan N. | Senior Associate Consultant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 08, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** If you have an application which has to be fault tolerating and highly efficient and wants a cost effective way to deploy it in production , amazon linux is the way to go **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** The command line experience is lagging when we compare it with something like red hat linux so this is something i really dont like about it and wish if it can be improved **Recommendations to others considering Amazon Linux 2:** Yes i do recommend for its cost effectiveness and amazon managed capabilities, it well integrates with amazon's other offerings **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have 19 application that needs linux os to run upon , so this is the only usecase we have right now ### 9. Amazon Own Linux Machine **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 07, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** The best thing it's like CentOS, I like it because I love CentOS Linux **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** How can someone dislike this thing. Nothing to dislike **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are running so many servers on it, and its very easy to use it. ### 10. Amazon Linux 2 - best free version of Linux on AWS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** vikram k. | Network and security architect, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 04, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Free to use and ease typing commands. Os is secure. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Nothing in specific. However, if its easily accessible for on prem solutioning would help further. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its go to Linix OS on AWS. So we dont need to plan for which OS when we move to AWS. ### 11. Amazing Amazon Linux 2 **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chetan C. | Mechanical engineering student, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 19, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** The software can be used for free 24 hour a day without any maintenance downtime and it's charged at low cost operating system. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Little bit more Transperancy is expected **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** Running small scale projects for academic purpose ### 12. linux review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amit S. | Co-Founder and Head of Technology, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 06, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** I really like how easy it is to use and run docker images on the amazon linux. there are variety of version of linux which can be used. I used to host my microservices . **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** I did not like the limited set of libraries and also to install a new library the commands are different from the normal linux which took some time to figure it **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am used amazon linux to host my microservices as docker containers hosted on amazon EC2. It was easy to connect and deploy the microservices there and expose to internet ### 13. Most affordable Linux on aws **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akshay S. | Senior Consultant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2021 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** This is cheapest and best Linux. It's good for developers and doing poc . This is also eligible for free tier. It's complete package which includes hosting and license cost. One can automate everything in aws Linux. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** It does not contain ui and all things one has to perform using command prompt or shell script. Majority of products do not officially support amazon Linux as they go for cloud agnostic approach. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's great for developers and architect as it's eligible for free tier and cheapest on Amazon. We have installed multiple application on aws Linux2 such as capture ,business application. ### 14. Linux env on Cloud **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sanjay S. | Architect, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 09, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Its better performance, product support, is developer-friendly, lightweight and no cost for the software. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** It only supports Amazon web servers and compute cloud. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use this for high performance execution environment and to run the cloud applications. It provides better developer community and product support from Amazon and hence make it easier for development eco system. ### 15. BEST EVER SERVER OPERATING SYSTEM **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sooraj S. | Senior Software Developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** I liked it because it constantly updated, and it was designed to provide a stable, secure, and high-performance execution environment for applications running on Amazone **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Sometimes there is a connection issue, and we have to restart Amazone linuz2 instance .other wise, it is ok to use. please ensure this connection is more secure and stable **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** I realized it has some significant benefits. It connects to multiple Amazone services via the bito3 package and has increased in my productivity a professional manner ### 16. Amazon Linux 2 virtual server **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Avinash k. | HTM 2.0, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 22, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Elasticity to easily increase the resource whenever needed **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** It should be based on Debian, installing packages using yum is troublesome sometime. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it for day to day job ### 17. The Linex2 **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mariola M. | Small Business Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 29, 2021 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** The most helpful offer that the Amazon Linux 2 has is helping run applications and softwares. The Amazon Linux 2 seems to help everything run smoothly and efficiently. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** The main dislike is probably that the Amazon Linux 2 can not be able or used to run applications and software on any smart devices or on any software ran devices. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** My business today runs quite smooth, steady, and very efficient, which is all truly thanks to using the Amazon Linux 2. I can be confident that my business will be top notch and up to date. ### 18. Stable, Secure, and high performance execution environment **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** ALPER K. | Senior Software Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** * It provides secure and high performance execution environment. * It provides modern application environment with the latest enhancements from the Linux community. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** * Amazon Linux creates additional migration costs when moving to another cloud service. * Developing on distribution A and deploying to distribution B is just asking for trouble. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** * Using Linux Operating System on Amazon Cloud. Cloud and Workspace or Operating System are combined. ### 19. Linux **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Deepu R. | Senior Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 21, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** no need to host server.all in cloud,easy to spin **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** for support need to go through amazon customer care **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** data extraction ### 20. Optimized performance **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shumaya M. | Quality Analyst Associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Amazon Linux 2 is the next gen tool helping developers with the software of their applications. It helps to run the application smoother. It offers long-term support with access to the latest innovations in Linux. Also, Amazon Linux 2 comes with no additional cost. It optimizes and enhances performance. Also predictable and reliable for long-lived applications. **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Nothing. It's been doing great! Its better than the previous version. **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** Application development and software integration. ### 21. Amazon Linux 2 **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Imran khan P. | Senior software analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Very easy procurement and lot of options to select **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Amazon linux is good and doesnt have any negative **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** able to quickly provision servers ### 22. Flexibility, ease of use, fungalbility **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 11, 2022 **What do you like best about Amazon Linux 2?** Original, Same linux commands can be used, Easy to learn **What do you dislike about Amazon Linux 2?** Nothing as such, pretty much the same ease of use **What problems is Amazon Linux 2 solving and how is that benefiting you?** Hosting critical applications ## Amazon Linux 2 Discussions - [How to look for the correct linux commands, which works with the Amazon Linux 2?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-to-look-for-the-correct-linux-commands-which-works-with-the-amazon-linux-2) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Amazon Linux 2 pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-linux-2-2021-10-12/reviews?page=2§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-04+18%3A58%3A42+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=062f586e-2084-4bee-9c56-2bcb05198be5&secure%5Btoken%5D=60381433e4422d415095c24df8aed35e992fb72fe5aaa7d37365a44f670ab320&format=llm_user) ## Amazon Linux 2 Integrations - [Docker](https://www.g2.com/products/docker-inc-docker/reviews) - [IBM Terraform (formerly HashiCorp Terraform)](https://www.g2.com/products/ibm-terraform-formerly-hashicorp-terraform/reviews) - [Laravel](https://www.g2.com/products/laravel/reviews) - [Node.js](https://www.g2.com/products/node-js/reviews) ## Amazon Linux 2 Features **Memory Management - Operating System** - RAM management **Device Management - Operating System** - I/O management **Backup and Recovery - Operating System** - Data backup **Error Detection - Operating System** - System operations monitoring ## Top Amazon Linux 2 Alternatives - [Rocky Linux](https://www.g2.com/products/rocky-linux/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (20 reviews) - [AlmaLinux OS](https://www.g2.com/products/almalinux-os/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (21 reviews) - [Ubuntu](https://www.g2.com/products/ubuntu/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (2,345 reviews)