CentOS

[1slorunner]

What is the difference between Fedora and CentOS? I loaded CentOS before writing this post and they look the same?

[sej7278]

centos is a redhat enterprise linux clone.

rhel is kind of based on fedora, but a version/six months behind, so rhel4 (or centos4) is based on fc3, fc5 will be out in march (maybe!) and centos5, based on fc4 will be out in october.

didn't you read up on centos before installing it?!

[pparks1]

CentOS is a rebuild directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Source RPM's (SRPMS).

Fedora is essentially the cutting edge/bleeding edge development version of Red Hat. Somewhat like a beta for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The things that work well in Fedora, make it into the Red Hat Enterprise product.

Red Hat Enterprise however is not a free product. In order to fully use Red Hat Enterprise, you have to purchase an entitlement from Red Hat directly which provides you with telephone and email support as well as updates via their up2date service.

Red Hat Enterprise is released about every 18 months and is supported for 5+ years. With Fedora, they release every 6-9 months and they "officially" support the newest release and 1 release back.

For many businesses, they cannot (or choose not) to continously update thier servers, so rather than using Fedora, they go with the Red Hat Enterprise/CentOS option because they have support for a longer period of time.

CentOS however is distributed free of charge. You don't have a phone number to call if you have a problem, but you have forums (www.centos.org) and forums like this one where you can get help. Instead of using up2date, you use the yum utility to get your updates.

So, essentially CentOS is perfect for those who want the stability and the long life of Red Hat Enterprise without the costs associated with it. I've also found CentOS as a great Dev/QA environment for testing and development purposes.

Give it a whirl, for most intents and purposes, it's very hard to differentiate between RHEL, Fedora and CentOS.

[imdeemvp]

Somewhat like a beta for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

It is beta! and very stable to run.

[daihard]

Is there a repository like livna for CentOS? I like the idea of not having to upgrade the OS every half year, but I don't want to struggle too much to obtain extra packages.

Thanks,
Dai

[Paul_Vandenberg]

Check out RPMForge at http://rpmforge.net. Follow the instructions for RHEL. Also, http://centos.karan.org is a rebuild of FC3 Extras for CentOS. Personally, I've found that FC3 packages run very well on CentOS 4, since RHEL/CentOS 4 is based on FC3.

Paul

[pparks1]

I use the Dag Wiers repo for FC4 for my CentOS boxes.

[daihard]

Originally Posted by pparks1

I use the Dag Wiers repo for FC4 for my CentOS boxes.

Can you use yum with CentOS to get updates from those repositories?

[jowah]

Originally Posted by daihard

Can you use yum with CentOS to get updates from those repositories?

Yes, that's possible.

[jazzjeff]

Originally Posted by 1slorunner

What is the difference between Fedora and CentOS? I loaded CentOS before writing this post and they look the same?

CentOS is free RedHat because Fedora problem of install evry 6 month. I use CentOS but when I'm on holiday i will install Fedora. Fedora have very new package and need broadband.

Fedora and CentOS don't look same, can you show screenshot? [user menu -> screenshot]

CentOS good if you want minimal update.

[Crux]

CentOS is what brought me to Fedora 4. I've tried Fedora in the past, however it was less than stable at that point. CentOS was more than I needed. Other than that? My Red Hat is off to them

[daihard]

Originally Posted by jowah

Yes, that's possible.

Great! Thanks a lot for the info.