Any experience with CentOS?

[snowpine]

Yeah, although I was totally wrong. The one thing I can't go without is wireless...so I'll be digging a bit to get it working. Is it too early to say, "I miss you ubuntu"?

You asking for help or just sayin'?

If the former then a good first step would be to tell us your wireless chipset.

[3Miro]

Red Hat and Centos == Lots of Stable but Outdated Software.

Had CentOS at work and I was upset because not only the software was old compared to Ubuntu, but I also didn't have root access and couldn't install additional things. Other than that, it was rock solid.

As other people said, try both CentOS and Fedora under both standalone and/or VirtualBox.

[snowpine]

Had CentOS at work and I was upset because not only the software was old compared to Ubuntu...

Comparable to Ubuntu LTS.

[3Miro]

Comparable to Ubuntu LTS.

The CentOS Software is older than Ubuntu LTS. Look at distrowatch.com

Currently CentOS comes with Gnome 2.28, while Ubuntu 10.04 comes with 2.30. Some packages are more recent, like Xorg 1.10, and the kernel is the same version for both, but overall CentOS is behind Ubuntu LTS (not to mention that we are 4 months away from the next LTS that would be pretty current).

[collisionystm]

Red Hat and Centos == Lots of Stable but Outdated Software.

Had CentOS at work and I was upset because not only the software was old compared to Ubuntu, but I also didn't have root access and couldn't install additional things. Other than that, it was rock solid.

As other people said, try both CentOS and Fedora under both standalone and/or VirtualBox.

In CentOS, Debian, OpenSuse and other distro's that are not built around the 'sudo' command, the method to obtain root access is quite simple.

Login as root.
Or from a terminal, su root

If you choose to use sudo

su root
yum install sudo

add your user account to the sudoers file /etc/sudoers

Keep in mind, you cannot lock the root account like Ubuntu because it is needed to run synaptic in debian, yast in opensuse and synaptic in CentOS.


CentOS 6 has very recent software and it should detect wireless and ethernet just fine. A good rule of thumb with any server is to run Intel hardware because Intel packs their drivers into the linux kernels. They are, in my experience, the providers of the best linux compatible hardware.

Cheers

[snowpine]

The CentOS Software is older than Ubuntu LTS. Look at distrowatch.com

Currently CentOS comes with Gnome 2.28, while Ubuntu 10.04 comes with 2.30. Some packages are more recent, like Xorg 1.10, and the kernel is the same version for both, but overall CentOS is behind Ubuntu LTS (not to mention that we are 4 months away from the next LTS that would be pretty current).

I don't need to look at distrowatch because I use CentOS every day for work.

Many package versions are shared between CentOS and Ubuntu LTS; some are 0-6 months newer in CentOS and some are 0-6 months newer in Ubuntu LTS.

On a long-term-support distro with 5-7 years' support, 0-6 months is pretty darn close. That is why I said:

Comparable to Ubuntu LTS.

and not

Exactly the same as Ubuntu LTS.

My intention was to give an Ubuntu user who's never used CentOS before a general impression of what to expect. It was not my intention to encapsulate the entirety of distrowatch.com, the distros' own documentation, and the actual experience of using said distros into a single 4-word sentence.

[CharlesA]

In CentOS, Debian, OpenSuse and other distro's that are not built around the 'sudo' command, the method to obtain root access is quite simple.

Login as root.
Or from a terminal, su root

If you choose to use sudo

su root
yum install sudo

add your user account to the sudoers file /etc/sudoers

Keep in mind, you cannot lock the root account like Ubuntu because it is needed to run synaptic in debian, yast in opensuse and synaptic in CentOS.

Yep. I've been debating on installing sudo, since it would make it easier for me to install stuff/do updates as a normal user, but maybe that's just me being lazy.

I suppose tip #1 would be to have a super strong root password (Isn't that a given?) and to not allow root logins via ssh since you can always su to root or use sudo if you have that set up.

[collisionystm]

Yep. I've been debating on installing sudo, since it would make it easier for me to install stuff/do updates as a normal user, but maybe that's just me being lazy.

I suppose tip #1 would be to have a super strong root password (Isn't that a given?) and to not allow root logins via ssh since you can always su to root or use sudo if you have that set up.

lol I install sudo.

The good part about ssh is you can easily restrict its access with hosts.allow/deny.

[3Miro]

In CentOS, Debian, OpenSuse and other distro's that are not built around the 'sudo' command, the method to obtain root access is quite simple.

Login as root.
Or from a terminal, su root

If you choose to use sudo

su root
yum install sudo

add your user account to the sudoers file /etc/sudoers

Keep in mind, you cannot lock the root account like Ubuntu because it is needed to run synaptic in debian, yast in opensuse and synaptic in CentOS.

I know that, it is just that I wasn't given root access to the machine in my office. This means no su or sudo or even yum.

CentOS 6 has very recent software and it should detect wireless and ethernet just fine. A good rule of thumb with any server is to run Intel hardware because Intel packs their drivers into the linux kernels. They are, in my experience, the providers of the best linux compatible hardware.

Cheers

CentOS 6 and Ubuntu LTS will not run with Intel Sandy Bridge graphics. You will need a more recent kernel than 2.6.32. Wireless would probably be fine, but depending on the model that may cause trouble too.

[CharlesA]

lol I install sudo.

The good part about ssh is you can easily restrict its access with hosts.allow/deny.

That's true. I usually just set PermitRootLogin to either "no" or "without-password" and set AllowUsers to whoever should have ssh access.

TCPwrappers is a good way to do it too.