On 02/27/2014 09:41 AM, Alexander Arlt wrote:
3rd party additions simply are a problem in this context because it will change CentOS into something not totally Red Hatish. CentOS is not the well suited tool for the enterprise purpose it is because it's CentOS - it is because it's an exact replica of Red Hat.
We are talking about ADDITIONAL variant, not changing current release of CentOS. Many people that come to Linux are lured in by stability of Linux. And when they are burned by problems with Fedora or Ubuntu, they start to search of rock solid distro, regardless of little older apps. Because majority of Windows users never update their app anyway. And they are happy using older versions as long as they work as they should. CentOS has best opportunity to be embodiment of Linux people ask for, it has very solid foundations that do not brake (easily). So if upper levels are replaced by app dependency (not really a case except for codecs), that is fair trade-off, especially if chosen version is bug free, and/or maintainers provide little bug-fixes for that release, and they do not rush into providing newer version with newer bugs.