CentOS

CentOS is a distribution GNU/Linux. All its packages, except for the logo, are packages compiled starting from the sources of the distribution Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is thus 100% identical and compatible (nearer to the 99.999%).

Red Hat in version binary, directly installable and exploitable, can be obtained only by payment of license at Red Hat and its retailers. The majority of the packages included and delivered with Red Hat are published under license LPG which forces the redistributor to provide the sources. CentOS thus uses the sources of Red Hat (accessible on waiters ftp) for recompiler and thus to reconstitute Red Hat with the identical one.

It should be known that Fedora is mainly based on Red hat. A very great number of packages are not even recompilés, they are the binary ones which is taken again directly.

CentOS is appeared as four CD-ROMs:

first CD of starting of the installation with the basic packages
three other CD containing all the other packages of the distribution

These last three CD are the same ones as Red Hat in all its variations:

Desktop
Workstation (WS)
Enterprise Server (ES)
Advanced Server (AS)

First CD of CentOS contains a menu which makes it possible to select which variation to install (Desktop, WS, ES or ACE).

One can thus regard CentOS as a free version of Red Hat. The support is done then free and openly via the Mailing-list S and the forums of the CentOS community, including the recompilings of cores.

External bonds

Official site of CentOS

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