CentOS: Free Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Awhile back I was looking for a Linux operating system to do some testing on. I needed to test on Red Hat Enterprise Linux but was not about to pay out the $349/yr for a RHEL license. I’m just to cheap for that. That’s when I stumbled upon CentOS.
CentOS is a free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux… Well, kind of.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is technically an open source operating system…meaning the source code is publicly available. However, the compiled operating system requires a license which costs money.
CentOS is built from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code. Any Red Hat branding and artwork is removed. Also, any non-free packages are altered in compliance with the Red Hat redistribution policies. You can read more about this here.
The current CentOS version is CentOS 5. In my experience, CentOS 5 runs great and is identical to RHEL 5 under the hood. I’ve been running it on my server at home for several months now with no issues.