CentOS


CentOS
Centos logo.png
CentOS 5.3.png
CentOS 5.3's default GNOME desktop
Company / developer The CentOS Project
OS family Unix-like
Working state Current
Source model Free and open source software
Initial release December 1, 2003 (2003-12-01)
Latest stable release 5.4  (October 21, 2009; 3 month(s) ago (2009-10-21)) [+/−]
Marketing target free computing (include Servers, Workstations, Mainframes, Desktops)
Available language(s) Multilingual
Package manager RPM Package Manager
Supported platforms IA-32, x86-64, PowerPC, i386, s390, s390x
Kernel type Monolithic (Linux)
Userland GNU
Default user interface GNOME and KDE
License GNU GPL & Various others.
Website www.centos.org

CentOS is a community-supported, free and open source operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It exists to provide a free enterprise class computing platform and strives to maintain 100% binary compatibility with its upstream distribution.[1] CentOS stands for Community ENTerprise Operating System.

Contents

Structure

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available only through a paid subscription service that provides access to software updates and varying levels of technical support. The product is largely composed of software packages distributed under open source licenses, and the source code for those packages are made public by Red Hat.

CentOS developers use Red Hat's source code to create a final product very similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat's branding and logos are changed because Red Hat does not allow them to be redistributed.[2]

CentOS is available free of charge. Technical support is primarily provided by the community via official mailing lists, web forums, and chat rooms. The project is not affiliated with Red Hat and thus receives no financial or logistical support from the company; instead, the CentOS Project relies on donations from users and organizational sponsors.

Versioning scheme

CentOS version numbers have two parts, a major version and a minor version. The major and minor version numbers respectively correspond to the major version and update set of Red Hat Enterprise Linux from which the source packages used to build CentOS are taken. For example, CentOS 4.4 is built from the source packages from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 update 4.[3]

Since mid-2006, starting with version 4.4 (formerly known as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0 update 4), Red Hat has adopted a versioning convention identical to that of CentOS, e.g., Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.5.[4]

Release history

The architecture information is taken from the CentOS Overview page.

CentOS Release Architectures RHEL base CentOS release date RHEL release date
2 i386 2.1 2004-05-14[5] 2002-05-17[6]
3.1 i386, x86_64, ia64, s390, s390x 3 2004-03-19[7] 2003-10-23[6]
3.4 - Server i386, x86_64, ia64, s390, s390x 3.4 2005-01-23 -
3.7 i386, x86_64, ia64, s390, s390x 3.7 2006-04-11[8] -
3.8 i386, x86_64 3.8 2006-08-25[9] 2006-07-20
3.9 i386, x86_64, ia64, s390, s390x 3.9 2007-07-26[10] 2007-06-15
4 i386, x86_64, various 4 2005-03-09[11] 2005-02-14[12]
4.6 i386, x86_64, ia64, alpha, s390, s390x, ppc (beta), sparc (beta) 4.6 2007-12-16[13] 2007-11-16[14]
4.7 i386, x86_64 4.7 2008-09-13[15] 2008-07-24[16]
4.7 - Server i386, x86_64 4.7 2008-10-17[17]
4.8 i386, x86_64 4.8 2009-08-21[18] 2009-05-18
5 i386, x86_64 5 2007-04-12[19] 2007-03-14[20]
5.1 i386, x86_64 5.1 2007-12-02[21] 2007-11-07[22]
5.1 - LiveCD i386 5.1 2008-02-18[23] -
5.2 i386, x86_64 5.2 2008-06-24[24] 2008-05-21[25]
5.2 - LiveCD i386 5.2 2008-07-17[26] -
5.3 i386, x86_64 5.3 2009-03-31[27] 2009-01-20[28]
5.3 - LiveCD i386 5.3 2009-05-27[29] -
5.4 i386, x86_64 5.4 2009-10-21[30] 2009-09-02[31]

Architectures

CentOS supports the x86 architectures:[32][33]

  • x86 (32-bit)
  • x86-64 (AMD's AMD64 and Intel's EM64T, 64-bit)

The following architectures were supported by CentOS up to version 4:

The following two architectures were supported or partially supported in CentOS but are not supported upstream:[32]

  • Alpha (CentOS 4 only)
  • SPARC (beta support since CentOS 3)

Bootable media version

A Live CD version of CentOS is available at mirror.centos.org.

A Live USB of CentOS can be created manually or with UNetbootin.

Tao Linux

See also: Red Hat Enterprise Linux derivatives

Tao Linux was another prominent distribution derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Its primary developer announced in June 2006 that Tao would be retired and rolled into CentOS development. Migration via 'yum update' was available to Tao users, providing a relatively painless migration path to the CentOS release. This helped prevent Tao users from becoming "orphaned" by their OS.[34]

Organizational Difficulties

In July of 2009, it was reported that CentOS's founder, Lance Davis, had disappeared in 2008. Lance Davis had ceased contribution to the project but continued to hold the registration for the CentOS domain and PayPal account. In August of 2009, the CentOS team reportedly made contact with Davis and obtained the centos.info and centos.org domains.[35]

References

  1. ^ "Purpose of CentOS". CentOS Project. http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=3. Retrieved 2009-04-21. 
  2. ^ "Red Hat License Agreements". Red Hat. http://www.redhat.com/licenses/rhel_rha_eula.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  3. ^ "What is the versioning/release scheme of CentOS and how does it compare to the upstream vendor?". CentOS Project. http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=34. Retrieved 2009-04-21. 
  4. ^ "Red Hat Enterprise Linux > AS/ES/WS Basics". Red Hat. http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_80_10667.shtm. Retrieved 2008-08-11. 
  5. ^ John Newbigin (2004-05-14). "CentOS-2 Final finally released". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2004-May/000153.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  6. ^ a b Red Hat. "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Errata Support Policy". http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  7. ^ Lance (2004-03-19). "CentOS 3.1 has now been released". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2004-March/000015.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  8. ^ CentOS Team (2006-04-11). "CentOS 3.7 for all Architectures is released". http://www.centos.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=129. Retrieved 2008-10-21. 
  9. ^ CentOS Team (2006-08-25). "CentOS 3.8 for i386 and x86_64 is released". http://www.centos.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=140. Retrieved 2008-10-21. 
  10. ^ CentOS Team (2007-07-26). "CentOS 3.9 is released for i386 and x86_64". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2007-July/014084.html. Retrieved 2008-10-21. 
  11. ^ DistroWatch.com (2005-03-09). "Distribution Release: CentOS 4". http://distrowatch.com/2439. 
  12. ^ DistroWatch.com (2005-02-14). "Distribution Release: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4". http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=02364. 
  13. ^ DistroWatch.com (2007-12-16). "Distribution Release: CentOS 4.6". http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=04657. Retrieved 2008-11-10. 
  14. ^ DistroWatch.com (2007-11-16). "Distribution Release: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.6". http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=04592. Retrieved 2008-11-10. 
  15. ^ Johnny Hughes (2008-09-13). "CentOS 4.7 is released for i386 and x86_64". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2008-September/015241.html. Retrieved 2008-09-14. 
  16. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux team (2008-07-24). "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 GA Announcement". http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv4-announce/2008-July/msg00002.html. Retrieved 2008-09-14. 
  17. ^ Karanbir Singh (2008-10-17). "CentOS 4.7 Server CD - i386 Released". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2006-May/012927.html. Retrieved 2009-01-23. 
  18. ^ Johnny Hughes (2009-08-21). "CentOS 4 i386 and x86_64 release of CentOS-4.8". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2009-August/016106.html. 
  19. ^ Karanbir Singh (2007-04-12). "Release for CentOS-5 i386 and x86_64". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2007-April/013660.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  20. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux team (2007-03-15). "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Now Available". http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv5-announce/2007-March/msg00001.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  21. ^ Karanbir Singh (2007-12-02). "Release for CentOS-5.1 i386 and x86_64". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2007-December/014476.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  22. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux team (2007-11-07). "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 General Availability Announcement". http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv5-announce/2007-November/msg00000.html. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  23. ^ Patrice Guay (2008-02-18). "CentOS 5 i386 - The CentOS-5.1 i386 Live CD is released". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2008-February/014688.html. Retrieved 2009-03-25. 
  24. ^ Karanbir Singh (2008-06-24). "Release for CentOS-5.2 i386 and x86_64". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2008-June/014999.html. Retrieved 2009-02-03. 
  25. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux team (2008-05-21). "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 General Availability Announcement". http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv5-announce/2008-May/msg00002.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
  26. ^ Patrice Guay (2008-07-17). "CentOS 5 i386 - The CentOS-5.2 i386 Live CD is released". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2008-July/015148.html. Retrieved 2009-02-03. 
  27. ^ Karanbir Singh (2009-04-01). "Release for CentOS-5.3 i386 and x86_64". http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2009-April/015711.html. Retrieved 2009-04-01. 
  28. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux team (2009-01-20). "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 General Availability Announcement". http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv5-announce/2009-January/msg00000.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22. 
  29. ^ "[CentOS-announce CentOS 5 i386 - The CentOS-5.3 i386 Live CD is released"]. CentOS mailing list. http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2009-May/015944.html. Retrieved 2009-06-22. 
  30. ^ Singh, Karanbir (21 Oct 2009). "[CentOS-announce] Release for CentOS-5.4 i386 and x86_64". lists.centos.org. http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2009-October/016195.html. Retrieved 2009-10-24. 
  31. ^ Red Hat Enterprise Linux team (2009-09-02). "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 GA Announcement". http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhelv5-announce/2009-September/msg00000.html. Retrieved 2009-09-22. 
  32. ^ a b "About CentOS". CentOS. http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=2. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  33. ^ "Red Hat Enterprise Linux server details". Red Hat. http://www.redhat.com/rhel/server/details/#architectures. Retrieved 2008-06-01. 
  34. ^ "Retirement of TaoLinux". CentOS Project. http://www.centos.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=135. Retrieved 2009-04-21. 
  35. ^ Perlow, Jason. (2 August 2009). CentOS: Getting Their S#!t Together is a Top Priority. ZDNet

Further reading

  • Membrey, Peter (2009). The Definitive Guide to CentOS. Apress. ISBN 978-1-4302-1930-9. 
  • Negus, Christopher; Timothy Boronczyk (2009). CentOS Bible. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-48165-3. 

External links

Free software portal
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Derivatives of Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Fedora
Red Hat Enterprise Linux derivatives
Fedora derivatives
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Linux distributions






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