CentOS

CentOS 5 running GNOME
Website:	http://centos.org
Company/ developer:	CentOS Lance Davis
OS family:	Linux
Source model:	Free software
Latest stable release:	5.0 / April 12, 2007
Kernel type:	Monolithic kernel, Linux
License:	Various
Working state:	in development

CentOS is a freely available Linux distribution which is based on Red Hat's commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product. This rebuild project strives to be 100% binary compatible with the upstream product and, within its mainline and updates, not to vary from that goal. Additional software archives hold later versions of such packages, along with other Free and Open Source Software RPM based packages. CentOS stands for Community ENTerprise Operating System. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... This article is about the GNOME project and desktop environment. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... The term software company could be applied to: a) a company that produces software, distributes software from a third party, or provides services such as custom software development. ... For other uses, see Software developer (disambiguation). ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... This article is about free software as used in the sociopolitical free software movement; for non-free software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... is the 102nd day of the year (103rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... A kernel connects the application software to the hardware of a computer. ... It has been suggested that Monolithic system be merged into this article or section. ... The Linux kernel is a Unix-like operating system kernel. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... A Linux distribution, often simply distribution or distro, is a member of the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems comprising the Linux kernel, the non-kernel parts of the GNU operating system, and assorted other software. ... Red Hat, Inc. ... Red Hat Enterprise Linux (often abbreviated to RHEL) is a Linux distribution produced by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market, including mainframes. ... Upstream in computing is the speed at which data can be transferred from the client to the server (uploading). ... This article is about free software as used in the sociopolitical free software movement; for non-free software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... RPM Package Manager (originally Red Hat Package Manager, abbreviated RPM) is a package management system. ... // An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ...

RHEL is largely composed of free and open source software, but is made available in a usable, binary form (such as on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM) only to paying subscribers. As required, Red Hat releases all source code for the product publicly under the terms of the GNU General Public License and other licenses. CentOS developers use that source code to create a final product which is very similar to RHEL and freely available for download and use by the public, but not maintained or supported by Red Hat. There are other distributions derived from RHEL's source as well, but they have not attained the surrounding community which CentOS has built; CentOS is generally the one most current with Red Hat's changes. This article is about free software as used in the sociopolitical free software movement; for non-free software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones are Linux distributions which are closely based on the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. ...

CentOS' preferred software updating tool is based on yum, although support for use of an up2date variant exists. Each may be used to download and install both additional packages and their dependencies, and also to obtain and apply periodic and special (security) updates from repositories on the CentOS Mirror Network. The Yellow Dog Updater, Modified (yum for short) acts as a package manager for RPM-compatible Linux computer systems. ... up2date is a tool used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS and Fedora Core that downloads and installs new software and upgrades to the operating system. ...

CentOS can be used as an X Window System based desktop but, like RHEL, is targeted primarily at the server market. Some hosting companies rely on CentOS working together with the cPanel Control Panel. “X11” redirects here. ... cPanel (Control Panel) is a graphical web-based web-hosting control panel, designed to make administration of websites easy. ...

Versioning scheme

• CentOS version numbers have two parts, a major version and a minor version. The major version corresponds to the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux from which the source packages used to build CentOS are taken. The minor version corresponds to the update set of that Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 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. CentOS refers to the source as "PNAELV" (Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor), which is an acronym referring to Red Hat, coined in response to questions raised by Red Hat's legal counsel in a letter to project members regarding possible trademark issues.
• Since mid-2006, starting with RHEL 4.4 (formerly known as RHEL 4.0 update 4), Red Hat have adopted a versioning convention identical to that of CentOS, e.g. RHEL 4.5 or RHEL 3.9. See this Red Hat Knowledge Base article for more information.

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Release history

• The first version of CentOS, CentOS 3 build4-rc0, was released in the end of 2003. CentOS 3.1 (version 3, quarterly update 1) was released on March 19, 2004 [1].
• CentOS 2, based on version 2.1 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, was released on May 14, 2004 [2].
• CentOS 4.0, based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 4, was released for the i386 architecture [3] and for the IA-64 architecture on March 1, 2005.[4].
• CentOS 5.0, based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5, was released on April 12, 2007.

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Architectures

CentOS supports the same architectures as Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

• Intel x86-compatible (32-bit)
• Intel IA-64 (Itanium 64-bit)
• x86-64 (64-bit, AMD's AMD64 and Intel's Intel 64)
• PowerPC/32 (Apple Macintosh PowerMac running the G3 or G4 PowerPC processor) ("beta" support)
• IBM Mainframe (eServer zSeries and S/390)

Additionally, CentOS supports two architectures not supported upstream: Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... In computing, IA-64 (short for Intel Architecture-64) is a 64-bit processor architecture developed cooperatively by Intel Corporation and Hewlett-Packard (HP), and implemented in the Itanium and Itanium 2 processors. ... The AMD64 or x86-64 is a 64-bit processor architecture invented by AMD. It is a superset of the x86 architecture, which it natively supports. ... PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... Apple Inc. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... Power Macintosh, or Power Mac, is the name of a line of Apple Macintosh personal computers based on various models of PowerPC microprocessors. ... Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... For other uses, see Mainframe. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... Since December, 2001, IBM designates all its mainframes with the name eServer zSeries, with the e depicted in IBMs well-known red trademarked symbol. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

• Alpha
• SPARC ("beta" support)

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See also

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones

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External links

• Official site
• CentOS at DistroWatch
• CentOS 4.3 review