CentOS viable alternative ?

One big advantage, support is much longer term than Ubuntu and others,
saving one the hassle of fresh installing or upgrading every 6 months or
after 18 months when all support, incl. security patches and bug fixes will
cease. From the CentOS FAQ:-

The install seems straightforward but how easy is it for an Ubuntu user
to migrate ? Have noticed that some users are complaining about connecting
to the repos being problematic. I suppose that there is also less 'eyecandy'
but that would rank below stability for me anyday.

In short can this distro be recommended ?

 

If you want long term, install the LTS version and the current one is 8.04 which has a three year lifespan and support, Ubuntu is way better supported than Cent OS.

 

CentOS is not for desktop fun. It's for serious productivity.
Go with Ubuntu on desktop. BTW, you do not need to upgrade all the time.

Think about it. On Windows, you can safely go without updates for many months if you know what you're doing; the same with Linux.

I still have 2 installations of 7.10 and prefer them over either 8.04 and 8.10, because they are more "classic." Do the job, so no sweat there.

Mrk

 

I am running the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS version - it's stable and I am happy with it.
My wife however is still on 7.10 for the simple reason that 8.04 didn't agree
with her laptop - there was monitor flickering which started after blanking
the screen. The solutions posted in the Ubuntu forums unfortunately
didn't work so I reinstalled 7.10 which works perfectly.
Not obtaining any security patches/bug fixes after April 2009 has me worried
despite assurances from Mrk. I might give it another go or even replace
her 4 year old laptop with a new one for Xmas.
Donations welcome !

 

Donations welcome? Well, I'd like you to donate me R4,000.
Mrk

 

Hahaha - the R isn't much in US$ - divide by 10.2- but seeing that you
practically introduced me to Linux via http://www.dedoimedo.com/
I might consider it as special case, but watch those bank charges!

 

Its a nice alternative to Debian Stable and well suited to server work, where security and stability is more important than being uptodate.

 

I would say stick with Ubuntu.
Ubuntu has been getting slower.
luckily ubuntu 9.04 will speed it up again.
i wouldnt reccomended using the alpha anywhere but in a virtual machine.
works quite good concidering its an alpha.

 

I assume your referring for use on the desktop

 

yes i am.
if someone was asking for server distro advice i would reccomend centos or debian.
i tryed ubuntu server but since i didnt really have a use for a server i didnt bother to learn commandline at this time.

 

Is it a viable alternative for the desktop?: Absolutely.
CentOs is RedHat.
No 'glamour' bleeding edge: just rock solid workability.
Configure how you want.

Starter: http://howtoforge.com/installation-guide-centos5.1-desktop
No probs with multimedia or usual tools.

There are a couple of VMs around if you want
VM Planet
http://vmplanet.net/?q=node/54
BagVapp:
http://174.36.1.2/centos52.7z
centOS 5.2

Virtual Box:
http://virtualboximages.com/CentOS.5.KDE
http://virtualboximages.com/node/57

Cant hurt to take a look

 

I currently run centos 5.2 in virtualbox and it works quite well for everyday use. Its not as user friendly as ubuntu but its not that difficult to use either. I found the built in selinux feature caused me a few issues so i took the simple solution and disabled it. It does have some eye candy and personally i find it a nice looking distro. The default repos are a bit sparse but you can easily add more if needed.

 

Thanks for the links. I need to wait till I have some bandwidth available. I
am capped @ 3GB and each extra GB costs - sucks.

Thanks for your take on CentOS. I think the howtoforge install tutorial posted by Longboard mentions somewhere that installing selinux can be
problematic and is not really recommended.

 

Yeh i forgot to disable it during the install process but its easily disabled afterwards it just requires manually editing one line in the config file.