First thoughts of CentOS 4.0

I was recently introduced to CentOS 4.0, which is a Linux distribution built from the source RPMs that comprise Redhat Advanced Server. I am currently running several production services on CentOS 4.0, and am extremely happy with the features it brings to the table. Here are several reasons you might be interested in using CentOS:

1. CentOS 4.0 is free, and has the look and feel of Redhat Advanced Server. If you are used to managing servers running one of the Redhat derivatives, you will feel right at home.

2. CentOS 4.0 uses yum as the default package manager!

3. CentOS mirrors the upstream RPMS provided by Redhat, and offers several additional repositories ( e.g., extras, addons, contribs, centosplus, etc.) to extend the base CentOS installation.

4. The CentOS team will provide security updates for CentOS 4.0 until February 29, 2012.

5. CentOS is supposed (I haven’t tested this yet) to be binary compatible with Redhat Advanced Server. This can lower costs for companies that don’t need true parity between production, QE, test and development servers.

6. Redhat Advanced Server is widely deployed, and there are dozens of places to get free support for it. Since CentOS is identical to Redhat Advanced Server, you can use the Redhat support forums to find answers to your questions.

7. Redhat Advanced Server is running some large websites, and you can be assured that corporate customers are leveraging their support contracts to get problems fixed. These fixes turn up in CentOS 4.0, so you benefit for free.

8. You can use Redhat Global File System 6.1 and Cluster Suite 4.0 with CentOS 4.0.

If you are looking for a commercially supported Linux distribution, CentOS is probably not for you. But if you want to use a distribution that is super reliable and community supported, it might be the right distribution for you.

matty on July 23, 2006 | Filed Under Rants

3 Comments

Sean  on July 23rd, 2006

I used CentOS 4.2 when setting up the B5media.com servers. It’s a great distribution. We’ve strayed a bit from the distribution, pulling in some of the php and httpd packages from FC4/5, but other than that it’s been great.

I’m looking forward to upgrading to 4.3 and moving to LVS for the load balancing.

Sean

Chris  on July 26th, 2006

*blink*

SneakyWho_am_i  on December 6th, 2008

I’m (not exclusively) using CentOS 5.2 and I’ve got to say I love it. I’m yet to break anything…

Unfortunately some of the packages are a bit *cough* old…. The first things I wanted to upgrade (yes for specific reasons that affected some of my code) were PHP, Apache and MySQL… The main options are to of course compile your own, or add a 3rd party repository (there are a few out there, jason litka’s is a good example)..

One package that is really horribly out of date is Image Magick. It’s out of sync by a major version and I don’t think a newer one is available from any repositories. Unfortunately several fancy things like php-magickwand will not work with such an old version of imagick, so this is an instance of needing to roll your own as well.

But as for being reliable, dependable, easy and fast?

Well, I turned that box on for the first time six months ago (headless) and I haven’t turned it off yet. So, so far so good.

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