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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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TrustRadius Insights
TrustRadius Insights

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

YouTube

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

YouTube

CentOS Linux Hot Plug CPU and Hot Plug Memory Demo

YouTube

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

YouTube

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

(129)

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

(1-21 of 21)
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April 26, 2022

Centos review to the best of my knowledge

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
It’s best suited for smaller organisations and not suited for companies that have the most number of clients. It should be made in a way that it can boot faster and also user friendly. The support should be better and have better features incorporated when compared with its rivals.
July 02, 2021

CentOS Linux is a stable, mature operating system for rock-solid performance

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Internet Company, 1-10 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
In any role where you need raw server power, CentOS Linux is extremely well suited. It is extremely stable, and in my experience, probably the most stable of the Linux distros available. It has a very wide base of support from 3rd party sources for additional functionality that do not come already in the CentOS Linux distribution itself. It is not as appropriate for situations that are customer facing or end user facing. For those, I recommend Ubuntu Linux. But for everything server & compute related, I recommend CentOS Linux.
June 29, 2021

Stay away from CentOS Stream

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Internet Company, 51-200 employees
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
May 25, 2021

CentOS - Stable, secure, fast. What more could you ask for in an Operating System?

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 501-1000 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
I have been a CentOS user for over 10 years and remain loyal to the core OS. When it comes to stability and speed, there's no other OS I'd recommend over it. I base this recommendation on my personal experience, as I have multiple development and production servers running the CentOS software today. It's running on newer and older hardware with ease, and the price is right!
May 12, 2021

Server material

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
CentOS is well suited as a server host OS, for web servers, databases and even container host. We found that NFS performance was better inside physical machines than in virtual ones, so for some critical IOPS bounded applications we used physical servers that ran CentOS and some of them were even Docker hosts with no noticeable performance degradation.
December 04, 2019

CentOS: stable, reliable, and secure Linux distribution

Jason Smith, DPA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Jason Smith, DPA
Instructional Technologist
Pomona College (Higher Education, 201-500 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
October 31, 2019

Cheap RPM support, not much else

Verified User
Engineer in Research & Development
Pharmaceuticals Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
CentOS is ideal if you need to replicate a Red Hat Enterprise Linux server setup for cheap/free, as you can use most, if not all, of the same packages you use on your RHEL set-up. It's also ideal if you need something that you can easily customize from the command line (such as in a virtualized environment.) It's less ideal if you want user community support or a user-friendly desktop environment.
July 17, 2019

Why I love CentOS

Joseph Ngugi Muiruri | TrustRadius Reviewer
Joseph Ngugi Muiruri
IT support
D-TAG Europe Ltd. (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
  • CentOS is great for businesses and developers that don't need the newest releases. CentOS is more stable and secure because of that - it always uses stable (but older) versions of their software.

  • When developing/publishing PHP based projects, we always prefer to use CentOS. We always use unmanaged services so there is no problem of sticking to older versions of PHP. We use PHP 7.1 / Laravel 5.4 without any problems on CentOS.

    On the other hand, when we are working with Ruby-based projects- we do face dependency issues with c/c++ libraries while installing certain newer gems on CentOS.

May 15, 2019

CentOS to save time and money.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Internet Company, 51-200 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
CentOS is well suited for Linux-specific operations, although you can run a VM on it and install Windows, it is best to use it has the native operating system. Where it's not suited for is for Desktop or any solutions where it calls for Windows OS. Over all CentOS can be used with alternative softwares that require windows.
May 01, 2019

Fast, Reliable and Secure

Valery Mezentsau | TrustRadius Reviewer
Valery Mezentsau
IT Department Manager
Acceptance Solutions Group (Financial Services, 51-200 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
April 06, 2019

CentOS: The Reliable and Secure Server

Charles R. Coggins III | TrustRadius Reviewer
Charles R. Coggins III
Technical Support Specialist
TimeTrak Systems, Inc. (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
CentOS is a beast of a Linux Server. If you need something that is minimalistic, fast and you know you can just drop whatever you want on and just let it continue to run, CentOS is the way to go. I would not use this if you are the type of person or company who always wants to have the latest and greatest features. You would probably have better luck with another Distro like Ubuntu.
November 30, 2018

CentOS - Reliability and security wrapped up in one easy to install package!

Aaron Smith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Aaron Smith
Information Technology Manager
TimeTrak Systems, Inc. (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
CentOS is very well suited for server infrastructure, especially if it's a public facing service. However, if it is being evaluated for a desktop experience, there are better options.
July 31, 2018

CentOS for those who need Red Hat Enterprise Linux but can't afford it.

Kenneth Hess | TrustRadius Reviewer
Kenneth Hess
Senior Systems Analyst
CymSTAR, LLC (Defense & Space, 201-500 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
I would use CentOS in any scenario where cost is a concern or where speed and reliability are very important. CentOS is very well suited to Internet-type services, such as network services and N-tier hosting scenarios. It is an excellent database server because of its speed and tunability. Anything that you would use Red Hat Linux for, you can do with CentOS. I would not recommend CentOS as a desktop operating system. There are better distributions for that application.
February 13, 2018

CentOS is a great option for a stable server for small and medium businesses

germary zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
germary zambrano
jefe del departamento de informatica
ministerio de educacion (Education Management, 11-50 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
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
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