[CentOS] Troubles for an non-IT beginner

Sun Jan 16 20:09:34 UTC 2011
Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>

At Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:47:33 -0500 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote:

> 
> On 01/16/2011 02:35 PM, Parshwa Murdia wrote:
> > On Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 8:32 PM, Digimer <linux at alteeve.com
> > <mailto:linux at alteeve.com>> wrote:
> > 
> >     I'd have to search through the CentOS mirror list to find it. Given the
> >     geographic spread of the mirrors though, you would be best served to
> >     search yourself for one near you.
> > 
> > 
> > Ok.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> >     By all means, try CentOS, but if you run into problems, please give
> >     Fedora or Ubuntu a try
> >     before abandoning Linux. They are much more up to date and have a much
> >     nicer user experience and hardware support.
> > 
> > 
> > Means, it is pretty sure or the chances are there that problems would
> > come when we would use Cent OS??
> 
> Well, the user programs will be a fair bit older. So things like
> OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and what have you will be missing
> features now considered "standard" in modern systems.
> 
> The kernel is, if I recall correctly, 2.6.18 that has only been patched
> to fix bugs and security features. The modern kernel is 2.6.37, and a
> *lot* of hardware has come along in the years in between. For example,
> it's unlikely that things like bluetooth, most wireless interfaces,
> modern video cards, etc, will work.

RedHat does back port drivers, at least 'essential' ones.  But yes, much
'bleeding edge' hardware might not be supported.

> 
> Another option, if you are concerned about the short life cycle of
> Fedora, would be to look at Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. The 'LTS' means "Long Term
> Support" and will be supported for a fairly long time. 10.04 was
> released last April, so it will be quite up to date.
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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