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CentOS Linux

CentOS Linux

Overview

What is CentOS Linux?

CentOS Linux is a Linux distribution is an enterprise OS platform compatible with its source RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Its end of life was announced for December 2021.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

CentOS Linux is widely used in various industries and for a multitude of purposes. Organizations rely on CentOS as a stable and reliable …
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Server material

8 out of 10
May 12, 2021
Incentivized
We use CentOS as the host OS for MongoDB servers in our analytics service. We also used to have it as the host for the user file Backup …
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CentOS rocks!

10 out of 10
July 06, 2019
Incentivized
CentOS is our go-to. For any software that can run on Linux, we choose it. We don't have to mess with Microsoft licensing and Windows …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

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Product Demos

DELL OMSA CentOS 6.4 DEMO 2014

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demo of free open source CentOS Linux, R, and RStudio for quant

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CentOS Linux Hot Plug CPU and Hot Plug Memory Demo

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VMware Tutorial Beginners | Session 14 CentOS Linux Hot Plug CPU and Hot Plug Memory Demo

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Learning Centos Linux : LVM Management on CentOS XenServer Demo Linux VM

YouTube
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Product Details

What is CentOS Linux?

CentOS Linux is a Linux distribution is an enterprise OS platform compatible with its source RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Its end of life was announced for December 2021.

CentOS Linux Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(130)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

CentOS Linux is widely used in various industries and for a multitude of purposes. Organizations rely on CentOS as a stable and reliable operating system for hosting a wide range of services. It serves as the foundation for information cyber security virtual appliances, making it a popular choice among vendors in this field. Additionally, CentOS is well-suited for network services like web servers and network file sharing, providing a solid platform for organizations to deliver their online presence.

Academic institutions also find great value in CentOS, using it as the primary Linux distribution for instructional and research computing endeavors. It offers a stable research platform that is easy to manage and comes with a solid support path. Moreover, CentOS is preferred by developers for custom software development and deployment, as it provides a stable and secure environment while offering regular security updates.

For organizations looking for cost-effective solutions, CentOS is an excellent choice. It eliminates the need for costly licenses associated with other Linux distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Many companies use CentOS for hosting public-facing websites, infrastructure monitoring, DNS services, phone systems, and various other server roles. Its compatibility with RPM packages makes it cloud-friendly and allows mirroring of expensive Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers.

Overall, users appreciate the speed, stability, and ease of use that CentOS offers. It serves as the go-to choice for virtual machines throughout many organizations and is known for its reliability. Additionally, CentOS eliminates the need for Microsoft licensing and Windows updates, making it a hassle-free option for those seeking an alternative to Windows-based systems.

High Security and Stability: Many users have expressed their satisfaction with the high level of security and stability provided by CentOS. They value the peace of mind that comes from using a reliable operating system straight out of the box.

Smooth Performance: Users consistently praise the performance of CentOS, even on average hardware. They appreciate its efficiency and optimization, which result in a smooth and responsive user experience.

Versatile Deployment: The ease and speed of deployment in various scenarios make CentOS a versatile choice for different projects. Users find it convenient for their needs, allowing them to quickly set up their development environment or host necessary network services.

Network Configuration Issues: Some users have experienced difficulties configuring network interfaces in CentOS, particularly when using it outside of regular configuration. This has been a common frustration among reviewers.

Slow Server Updates: Reviewers have expressed a desire for faster server updates in CentOS. They feel that the current update process takes too long and they would like to see improvements in this area.

Limited User-Friendly Features: CentOS is not considered a good desktop solution by some users due to its lack of certain user-friendly features and an intuitive user interface. These limitations have been mentioned by multiple reviewers as drawbacks of the software.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use various CentOS systems in our organization on over two thousand servers all over the world. We write custom software for CentOS and rely on it to be a stable and secure platform for our needs. CentOS needs to be reliable for our business org to function properly and not introduce issues.
  • Stable
  • Reliable
  • Secure
  • Undoing the move to CentOS Stream.
  • Increasing the lifetime of CentOS.
  • Provide already tested updates to users.
  • Don't use the users as guinea pigs for testing.
CentOS 7 has a longer support life than CentOS 8, and in that case, should be used in production environments until the support ends. Moving to CentOS 8 now would be a mistake with the switch to CentOS Stream, and the decreased support model for CentOS 8. Because of this, CentOS 8 is not a production stable environment.
  • Security
  • Reliability
  • Stable
  • Very easy to use for multiple systems.
  • Creating uniform environment.
  • Having to switch from CentOS 8 to another system.
Ubuntu Linux LTS used to be a more bleeding edge and did not provide the reliability and stability compared to CentOS, but with the move to CentOS Stream. This is reversed and we're considering moving to Ubuntu even though that is a lot of work. We simply can't work with CentOS Stream and had to redo planning to use another OS.
Jason Smith, DPA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use CentOS as the primary Linux distribution across all our instructional and research computing endeavors. It is used across all the IT infrastructure and supports many unique academic projects. The main problem that CentOS solves is that it provides a stable research platform that is easy to manage and most of all has a solid support path that extends well into the future.
  • Excellent "L" in the LAMP server.
  • CentOS is a total workhorse and very stable distribution.
  • Security and other updates are a breeze with YUM.
  • The community support and documentation is as good as it gets.
  • Sometimes we have to add some esoteric repositories to YUM, and that is a bit of a pain.
  • Sometimes we fight with SE Linux if it is enabled.
  • I wish I could get a CentOS t-shirt.
Here is where CentOS really excels. If you have a shop where there are seasoned Linux administrators who do not need to have their hand held to do this and that, CentOS does really well. Since it is community oriented there are no funny license hoops to jump through or administration to waste your time. CentOS is well suited in our academic environment.
  • CentOS is all positive on return!
  • The more CentOS machines we have around here the better.
  • CentOS is a tight Linux distro, it is conservative and solid where it needs to be.
  • Security options are excellent. You can really make it tight.
Long ago we used to run Red Hat ES. However, the management of the licenses and stupid dashboards just killed us. Too much time was wasted on worthless administration. Support was not good either. Now I used SUSE way back in the 2000's and it was ok. About two years ago I tried to use it again and wow, that was a nightmare. SUSE was just inconvenient to use, total weirdo Linux. It was almost like using BSD or something. Ubuntu, I like that for the desktop.
Again, written documentation is excellent, even on the older versions. The support community is the best. It is comprehensive and I would say that it global because it transcends national boundaries. Also, you find all types of people using CentOS to do all sorts of things so you are bound to find someone to talk to if there are problems.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Apache Tomcat
July 06, 2019

CentOS rocks!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
CentOS is our go-to. For any software that can run on Linux, we choose it. We don't have to mess with Microsoft licensing and Windows updates. It is fast, stable, and relatively easy to use if you are familiar with Linux at all. If you are having a problem a quick Google search will typically turn up an answer.
  • Fast
  • Stable
  • Well documented
  • Secure
  • Not a big fan of Firewalld in CentOS 7 but it's pretty easy to switch back to Iptables if needed.
We use it anywhere we can.
  • It has saved us money as we haven't had to bother with Windows licensing for some of our servers.
  • Downtime is somewhat reduced and updates are way faster than Windows.
We also use Ubuntu or Debian. They have their differences but it mainly comes down to what the software "officially" supports. You can get it to run on either but if there are scripts or packages already built it just saves time.
Valery Mezentsau | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In most cases, I have been and still am using CentOS operating system as the base for information/cyber security virtual appliances. In my practice, I have been using a lot of different virtual information security appliance from different vendors. Most of the vendors are placing their Infosec related software on top of CentOS operating systems. Also, I have been using CentOS servers for a telephony system.
  • First of all, CentOS is one of the most secure and stable OSes straits from the box.
  • High performance on the average hardware.
  • In most of my scenarios—easy and quick deployment.
  • Huge KB community that helps to build and support different services on CentOS.
  • Versions lifecycle.
  • Configuring network interfaces sometimes causes a lot of issues, especially when you are using it out of regular configuration.
  • Server updates—would be better to decrease the time for that.
  • CentOS is not a good desktop solution.
For the same type of tasks/roles that I have been using, I would definitely recommend CentOS for my colleagues. 9 out of 10 because it is a very stable and secure solution, but for some different tasks, there are lots of other Linux OSes that could be a better fit. For example, RHEL sometimes has better support of software vendors. Or, Ubuntu-like systems are better for GUI and desktop experience.
  • Being supported by Infosec software vendors provided us vendor documentation, knowledge bases and decreased time spent troubleshooting issues.
  • Fast and easy deployment: saved time and people resources for implementation.
  • Cost saving on deployment because no licenses needed.
Comparing to Ubuntu Server OS, CentOS is better from the security hardening side. RHEL: from my hands-on experience it is pretty much the same as CentOS, but in lots of cases, costs money. However, RHEL has better internal, community and software vendors support. Windows servers are more useful for most of IT specialists and once carefully patched can be the same secured solution, but requires purchasing a license(es).
VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, Veeam Backup & Replication, Windows Server, Hyper-V, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Ubuntu Linux, Microsoft Office 365, MS SharePoint, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, NETGEAR Ethernet Switches, Cisco Ethernet Switches, SonicWall TZ
germary zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Currently we use CentOS as a service bus to interconnect through different web servers and applications that provides information in different systems. It has also helped me because it is a stable and robust operating system that helps you not to hang up or get stuck at the time of execution.
  • is a good operating system to create servers due to its stability and security and budget-friendliness, since it is a free distribution
  • this system is stable and efficient in the consumption of resources, which helps our budget, especially since it has expanded to run Apache, PHP, MySQL and be more on a par with other systems
  • What I do not like about centOS is that in some installations it has caused problems with the network interfaces which I have to do cumbersome procedures for their configuration
  • In rare cases there is a software that we want that is not available through a repository. I think it would be better if they expand more these repositories to improve the user's experience
This system has good performance as an operating system for servers. In addition to the stability and features of this robust distribution of Linux, it allows for easy configuration for web servers, has a library repository and has the security of source packages released from Red Hat.

They do not have x86 versions of the other distribution. Which is a trend for all operating systems, but I still have some cases where the x64 version will not be installed on the hardware I have
  • Updates may take a while to appear. There was a gap of more than a year. It's much more regular now and it looks like it will continue in the foreseeable future
  • debian
CentOS is a derivative distribution, or rather cloned, of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which allows 100% compatibility with the binaries of the applications developed for RHEL. For this reason, and being "backed" by such an important company as Red Hat, it is one of the most used distributions, the opposite of debian that it is its base distribution and does not have a good backup
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