Hi Anne,
> [...] he feels very insecure.
>
> It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to
> keep it securely patched. [...]
>
> I'd be glad of any advice.
Like a previous poster, I'd also suggest, that you use an other
distibution in this case. Ubuntu might be a good choice or maybe SuSE.
Both are probably better suited for non-commandline techies :-).
Both distributions offer easy-to-use update tools.
I'd also suggest not to use Fedora or OpenSuse. They have both very
fast release cycles, forcing you to updating very often.
On the other hand, showstoppers can always happen and in this case
probably nothing will save you a personal appearance :-)
Cheers
frank