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  5. CentOS vs elementary OS

CentOS vs elementary OS

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

CentOS
CentOS
Stacks13.8K
Followers9.0K
Votes53
elementary OS
elementary OS
Stacks48
Followers110
Votes26
GitHub Stars1.3K
Forks710

CentOS vs elementary OS: What are the differences?

  1. Package Management: One key difference between CentOS and elementary OS is their package management systems. CentOS uses Yum or DNF for package management, while elementary OS relies on Debian's APT. This difference impacts how users install, update, and manage software on their systems.

  2. Desktop Environment: Another notable distinction is the desktop environment each operating system provides. CentOS typically offers a more traditional and stable desktop experience with GNOME, KDE, or Xfce, while elementary OS focuses on a modern, user-friendly desktop environment called Pantheon that resembles macOS in its design and functionality.

  3. Target Audience: CentOS is primarily designed for servers and enterprise environments, emphasizing stability and long-term support. In contrast, elementary OS is tailored for desktop users who value a clean, intuitive user interface and a curated selection of default applications, making it ideal for everyday computing tasks.

  4. Customization Options: CentOS allows for extensive customization and configuration to meet the specific needs of servers and enterprise setups, while elementary OS emphasizes a more streamlined and locked-down experience to maintain its design aesthetic and user experience consistency.

  5. Support and Community: CentOS benefits from the backing of a large community of enterprise users and a robust support network, ensuring reliable assistance and updates for server deployments. On the other hand, elementary OS has a dedicated but smaller community focused on desktop users, offering a more personalized support experience for end-user issues.

  6. Release Cycle: CentOS follows a stable release cycle with long-term support (LTS) versions, providing a reliable platform for critical systems over an extended period. In contrast, elementary OS follows a more frequent but incremental release cycle, offering quicker access to new features and improvements for desktop users.

In Summary, CentOS and elementary OS differ in package management, desktop environments, target audience, customization options, support communities, and release cycles.

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Advice on CentOS, elementary OS

Jerome/Zen
Jerome/Zen

Software Engineer

Aug 2, 2020

Decided

Global familiarity, free, widely used, and as a debian distro feels more comfortable when rapidly switching between local macOS and remote command lines.

CentOS does boast quite a few security/stability improvements, however as a RHEL-based distro, differs quite significantly in the command line and suffers from slightly less frequent package updates. (Could be a good or bad thing depending on your use-case and if it is public facing)

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Comments

Detailed Comparison

CentOS
CentOS
elementary OS
elementary OS

The CentOS Project is a community-driven free software effort focused on delivering a robust open source ecosystem. For users, we offer a consistent manageable platform that suits a wide variety of deployments. For open source communities, we offer a solid, predictable base to build upon, along with extensive resources to build, test, release, and maintain their code.

It is the flagship distribution to showcase the Pantheon desktop environment. The distribution promotes itself as a “fast, open, and privacy-respecting” replacement to macOS and Windows.

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Visual Changes in Desktop elements; Terminal; Photos; Night Light Mode; Music; Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet; Mouse and Touchpad Settings; Bluetooth Settings.
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
1.3K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
710
Stacks
13.8K
Stacks
48
Followers
9.0K
Followers
110
Votes
53
Votes
26
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 16
    Stable
  • 9
    Free to use
  • 9
    Reliable
  • 6
    Good support
  • 6
    Has epel packages
Cons
  • 1
    Yum is a horrible package manager
Pros
  • 5
    Free to use
  • 4
    Fast
  • 4
    MacOs like feel
  • 4
    Stable
  • 3
    Elegant
Cons
  • 1
    Less customization
Integrations
No integrations available
Nagios
Nagios
Perfect
Perfect
Windows
Windows
Splash
Splash
macOS
macOS

What are some alternatives to CentOS, elementary OS?

Ubuntu

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’. The Ubuntu operating system brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the world of computers.

Debian

Debian

Debian systems currently use the Linux kernel or the FreeBSD kernel. Linux is a piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by thousands of programmers worldwide. FreeBSD is an operating system including a kernel and other software.

Arch Linux

Arch Linux

A lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.

Fedora

Fedora

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that provides users with access to the latest free and open source software, in a stable, secure and easy to manage form. Fedora is the largest of many free software creations of the Fedora Project. Because of its predominance, the word "Fedora" is often used interchangeably to mean both the Fedora Project and the Fedora operating system.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint

The purpose of Linux Mint is to produce a modern, elegant and comfortable operating system which is both powerful and easy to use.

Linux

Linux

A clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

CoreOS

CoreOS

It is designed for security, consistency, and reliability. Instead of installing packages via yum or apt, it uses Linux containers to manage your services at a higher level of abstraction. A single service's code and all dependencies are packaged within a container that can be run on one or many machines.

Gentoo Linux

Gentoo Linux

It is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need.

Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux

Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox.

Manjaro

Manjaro

It is an accessible, friendly, open-source Linux distribution and community. Based on Arch Linux, it provides all the benefits of cutting-edge software combined with a focus on getting started quickly, automated tools to require less manual intervention, and help readily available when needed.

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