[CentOS] new user - with questions

[David.Mackintosh at xdroop.com]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 10:32:42PM -0500, Michael Klinosky wrote:
 
> Is CentOS basically like Fedora? (Well, except for the updates every 6
> months!) As in 'look & feel', underlying operations, etc. (Btw, I know 
> about removing upstream branding.)

Very basically.  CentOS/RHEL 5 is loosely based on Fedora Core 6,
just as CentOS/RHEL4 is loosely based on FC3.

I say loosely because RHEL 6 wasn't based on FC9, and if I am
understanding things correctly, won't be based on FC10 either.

> Any caveats? Meaning, does it use the same repositories that Fedora
> does? Are there any major or significant differences?

CentOS/RHEL is built for stability, meaning what they ship is what you
get.  You will see bug and security fixes for the applications merged
in, but (broadly generally speaking) no new features.

The exception to this is device drivers and support; new devices are added
to the kernel stream and to the xorg X display engine during each minor
release (ie 5.1 to 5.2).

As far as repositories go, there are several RHEL/CentOS friendly repositories
such as RPMforge.  RedHat has one of their own too.  Do some research before
connecting, they are not always compatible with each other.  My preference
is for RPMforge, but that's purely based on the fact that I've found enough
things in RPMforge that I want.  

Beyond that, you can *usually* make your own installable RPMs from
SRPMs for things that worked with FC6, and you can even resort to
building from source code although that gets you away from nice RPM
management.  Remember, the further you stray from the stock distribution,
the more you get into "you get to keep all the pieces when it breaks"
level support.

> I should just go for the most recent package (5.2) - yes? About how old 
> are the apps? (A few months?)

If you were happy with FC6, then yes you want CentOS 5.x.  The apps
are all not-quite-as-old-as FC6 versions were, but bugfix and
security patches are merged in.  CentOS 4.x has FC3-vintage
applications.  

The best practice is to do a minimal install from CD or DVD, then
immediately do a 'yum update', then 'yum install' the extra pieces
you need.  (Why?  Because if there is a pending update to something
you are wanting to use, there's no point installing it from DVD since
you will end up downloading it anyways.) 

> How are application updates handled? 5.2 has firefox-3.0-0.beta5.6.el5. 
> I saw (on the Firefox website) that 3.0.6 is out. Will an app update get 
> that version, or something just a bit older? (btw, I know about 
> backporting.)

Nope, CentOS 5 will probably have Firefox 3.0-0 for its lifetime.  If you
want something newer, you can probably retro-fit it yourself.  If you need
something newer, the stability of CentOS is probably not what you really
want.  Applications will not be generally refreshed until RHEL/CentOS 6.

> Does centos use Plymouth? I have a somewhat recent computer (about 3 
> years old) that has an intel chipset (which Plymouth can't handle yet, 
> and so it needs xdriver=vesa during install).

I don't know.  If FC6 could handle it, CentOS 5 can probably handle it.
Always use the latest DVD/CD image to do your initial install from, that
gives you the best chance of hardware compatibility.

-- 
 /\oo/\
/ /()\ \ David Mackintosh | 
         dave at xdroop.com  | http://www.xdroop.com
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