CentOS Stream 8 Latest (CentOS 8) with support by ProComputers

My main use case for CentOS  is mostly development, as I use it when I have to create large builds over AWS  EC2  instances. That is the main reason I use CentOS .

A specific example of a project where CentOS was especially helpful for my development work is when I had an application with a backend build that took a long while to build on my local machines. I used an EC2  instance to do that because it has more compute power than my local machine, so I used it with CentOS to build my application.

Other than that, hosting front-end applications back when I started working in the field was also a use case for CentOS, as I would use an EC2 machine with CentOS to host my front-end application alongside the backend applications and containers.

When using CentOS on EC2 for builds, I noticed it is around three to five times faster, especially considering my local machine is not that great with CPU resources, so it is quite faster than my local machine.

The best features CentOS offers that stand out to me include it being lightweight and the UI and the whole ecosystem, which I prefer. There is not something very specific about it that I like, but the generic UI and the whole setup, and it was the start of my career when I started using it, so I kind of stuck with it.

I like CentOS interface or setup process because the instructions were quite clear; I was able to set up a whole new ecosystem without a tutorial or instruction set. The UI is clean, simpler, and I know where everything is.

The Windows-like UI is quite helpful.

CentOS has positively impacted my organization regarding cost savings; having a dedicated high-resource machine is quite expensive these days, and since the compute power is so cheap on AWS , hosting a machine with UI over the EC2 is quite easier for beginners like me.

Sometimes it is quite difficult to find drivers when I have CentOS locally on my machine. For example, I have an old Lenovo laptop where I experience driver issues sometimes.

I have been working in my current field for around six years.

For my use cases, CentOS is quite stable, and I have not found any problems with it.

I have not had to scale up in the traditional sense, but I remember increasing the storage and RAM inside AWS, and CentOS handled it without any problems.

I never had to reach out to customer support for CentOS, so I cannot comment on that experience.

Before CentOS, I primarily used Windows, but I switched because the licensing fees for Windows were quite high, while CentOS was not that expensive; the exact numbers escape me, but it was cheaper than maintaining a Windows machine.

Migrating applications or workloads to CentOS was quite smooth; I just pulled in my code for the build scenario, and since the code was inside a container, that made it an easy process.

I purchased CentOS through the AWS Marketplace .

In terms of documentation and community support for CentOS, I find it quite easy; these days, OpenAI's ChatGPT is really helpful for information, and generally, it is quite good.

I am not entirely sure about the license I purchased for my local machine, but I assume it is the community version, while for the AWS one, I do not entirely remember the pricing.

I evaluated other options before choosing CentOS, including Mint and Ubuntu ; I also considered Red Hat, though I do not exactly remember the name, but there are some expensive versions as well, which contributed to my decision.

CentOS is deployed in my organization in both on-premises and private cloud environments.

The cloud provider we primarily use for our private cloud deployment is AWS, and we also have a private server that is essentially a blade server where we have deployed it.

I have not dived into the security features of CentOS that much, so I am not sure I am a good person to answer that question.

I have pushed CentOS to the limit by testing an application where I had to accommodate multiple users; I increased the port number to allow 10,000 users to connect to that application hosted on a CentOS server.

CentOS handled that situation reliably; while there were some difficulties changing some settings inside the application, once I managed to tweak the settings, it worked very well, allowing around 10,000 users to connect and chat simultaneously.

The only compatibility issue I have faced with CentOS is with the biometric drivers, such as the fingerprint drivers, which were quite complicated, but generally, whatever I am trying to run works quite well.

My advice for others looking into using CentOS is that it is quite sane; there is not any bloatware on it, and everything just seems to work. I would rate my overall experience with CentOS an 8.

My main use case for CentOS  is setting up my RADIUS server. I have a RADIUS server, along with a DHCP server and Active Directory in Windows. I set up CentOS  to run FreeRADIUS on the server and connect through Active Directory accounts using AD Connect. I also tried using the Samba server connection for the AD connection.

I set up CentOS RADIUS server for testing usage because our institution is fully adapted to Microsoft features and Microsoft accounts. I am implementing CentOS RADIUS server because of its speed and ease of accessibility. When you set up a RADIUS server in a Linux-based environment, it is easy to connect with global accounts, which is why I chose CentOS.

CentOS has helped me most through its enterprise-level stability. CentOS is very stable and easy to use because of the interface. It is easier for me to use CentOS for my specific requirements than Ubuntu  server, which is mostly command-line. Security-wise, CentOS is also the best, comparable to Ubuntu  and others. CentOS supports FreeRADIUS, which is helpful for my needs.

What has helped me most is that CentOS supports the latest stable FreeRADIUS packages with easy installation via YUM or DNF setup and wide module compatibility, including databases such as MySQL , and it supports Active Directory and LDAP setup, making it suitable for setting up a RADIUS server. CentOS also has long-term support, frequent security patches, and other features that are helpful for this operating system.

Regarding how CentOS can be improved, I am primarily expecting stronger security features on the security side. CentOS RADIUS server handles sensitive authentication data, so improving security is the priority. Enforcing SE-Linux with custom policies tuned for FreeRADIUS and enabling automatic security updates would be helpful. I would also recommend improving CentOS minimal OS installation.

If CentOS could be made more lightweight and minimal during installation, that would be beneficial because memory usage and service conflicts exist in this OS. Improved logging and monitoring are also needed. Better insight would make it easier to diagnose issues, so integrating FreeRADIUS logs with the Elasticsearch stack, Grafana , or Graylog would be helpful. Enabling systemd-journald persistence and storage would also be beneficial.

CentOS, being Linux-based, is the best in security, but it needs more on the security side for CentOS RADIUS server. FreeRADIUS security improvements and security patches are needed. If possible, including a graphical user interface for future features would be most welcomed.

CentOS is stable in my experience.

CentOS scalability is good and can handle growing workloads easily according to my setup, which is not heavy-load work or heavy usage. According to my work, it is adequate.

I did not try CentOS customer support, so I do not have an idea about it.

I did not previously use a different solution. In my institution, they had used Microsoft RADIUS, but I did not prefer it. There was conflict in setting up the Microsoft RADIUS server, and connecting it with global accounts was also difficult, so I chose CentOS.

I have seen a return on investment using CentOS. I can share that mainly time is saved because of the interfaces I have used. This has helped me the most. When you plan to improve this system, you must include all features that are accessible through graphical user interfaces, which are also best for users.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that I have used the free version of CentOS with fully free versions of software also inside the operating system. I set it up as a local server and used it in that system only, so there is no extra cost for me in this environment setup. CentOS licensing was also free for that setup, so there is no cost for me.

Before choosing CentOS, I definitely evaluated other options, specifically Ubuntu. Ubuntu was the other option I had before deciding on CentOS.

My advice for others looking into using CentOS is that it is a Linux-based operating system with a graphical user interface. That is the main thing for whoever needs a Linux-based operating system to use as a server with a GUI, so it is best for its GUI. I would rate CentOS overall as an eight on a scale of one to ten.

My main use case for CentOS  is development and production servers. For development and production services, I use CentOS  to deploy, and I am currently using it to deploy Docker  Swarm applications for Dockerized applications for some legacy applications before we move them to Kubernetes .

In addition to my main use case, I have a few bastion servers I use for VPN connections.

The best features CentOS offers include stability, which I think is the most important. I have found CentOS servers to run very long without any issues, as well as clean updates that do not cause any downtimes.

CentOS's stability and clean updates have helped me in my day-to-day work and with my projects by providing predictable workloads and ensuring that I can assure stability for my stakeholders, which is the business. On features, security is always a good thing, and the important factor about CentOS is that security is a core feature. It is also part of the reason why the updates are so stable, which gives me the confidence to provide reports for the stakeholders.

Compatibility is great as Linux servers in general are usually amazing for deploying both development and production workloads, and performance has never been an issue because Linux is very good on resources.

I cannot think of anything that CentOS could be improved on at the moment. Considering the fact that I have not had any issues with needed improvements such as documentation, community support, or compatibility with newer technologies in the past number of years I have been running these servers, there is nothing to report.

I have been using CentOS for the past ten years.

CentOS is very stable.

Considering I use CentOS in legacy servers, I do not have a lot of experience scaling it.

I have not had any need to contact customer support for CentOS.

I have previously used Ubuntu  servers before, and the reason for my switch to CentOS was originally because of the security-forwardness of Red Hat based servers, as well as that hybrid kind of benefit you get from CentOS by receiving the updates from Fedora quickly in terms of the server environment. I found Ubuntu  sometimes can be relatively unstable, which is why I moved to CentOS.

I have seen a return on investment, particularly in terms of money saved because I do not pay for the servers. I only pay for the use of the servers; I do not pay for the operating system. I would not say it translates to fewer employees, but for time, it is greatly considered once again the stability. Time is always positively impacted by stable systems, so I would say there is a lot of time that has been saved.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for CentOS has been very straightforward, as I use the free version of CentOS, so there is no fee for that.

Before choosing CentOS, I did evaluate other options, with Red Hat being one of them, but at the time, it was paid, so that is why I ended up using CentOS.

My advice for others looking into using CentOS would be to make sure you set up your update schedule to be manual so that you can choose when and how to do your updates. If you want a stable environment, choose a good cloud provider and set it up in your own way. I have also used it for bare metal, so there is not much I can provide in terms of that. I want to say keep up the good work with CentOS. I gave this review a rating of nine out of ten.

CentOS  is deployed in my organization on-premises. I have been working for my current company for the last two years and three months. We have a total of 64 servers in our infrastructure, and out of those, we use 10 to 12 CentOS  OS servers. The versions we use are 7 and 8. From my past experience, the server has never rebooted or had any critical situation.

The most suitable feature of CentOS is its exceptional stability, security, and long-term support, which make it a popular choice for enterprise and server environments.

CentOS is widely recognized for providing a stable and secure platform, especially suited for server and mission-critical workloads. Whenever we face critical work, it is easy for our team to handle. For long-term support, each CentOS release generally guarantees long-term updates, ensuring reliability for extended periods.

CentOS should provide updates more regularly. Kernel parameters, sysctl config details, tuned profiles, process prioritization, optimized disk, and input scheduler choice are all points for performance optimization.

Regarding needed improvements, expanding hardware resources, adding more RAM, and switching to SSD  storage would ensure hardware is able to match application demand.

I have been using CentOS for above six years.

From my past experience, the server has never rebooted or had any critical situation.

CentOS always provides good feedback. When I install CentOS, it is easy to handle and troubleshoot.

CentOS is stable, reliable, flexible, and very useful.

The experience from the last two months has been very good with CentOS OS.

CentOS's scalability is very supportive for both small deployments and large enterprise environments, making it very flexible. It allows users to scale resources vertically for upgrading hardware and horizontally by adding more servers, making it suitable for modern web hosting and containerized applications.

When we encounter issues or need troubleshooting assistance, we almost always find answers from the community or from other people's experience shared over the internet.

On our previous servers, we used RHEL  8 OS. After formatting that server, we installed CentOS OS on request of users. Using it for the last two or three months on the same servers, the server has not automatically rebooted.

When users request to install or create new servers, they specify their preferred OS. They declared for us to install CentOS OS, so we create the servers and install CentOS OS based on their requests.

Recently we have installed MariaDB  as a database, and for the OS, we use CentOS. Our physical server, which had RHEL  8 already installed, was not providing good performance. Our user requested to format the physical server and reinstall CentOS OS. I have recently installed CentOS OS version 8 on my physical server.

We provide infrastructure support to our customer, which is an Indian government PSU company, specifically the Ministry of External Affairs. They provided us with their data center. We developed the data center from scratch and created the entire infrastructure. We develop applications and websites, handling all infrastructure support from beginning to high level for our client.

My advice to others considering CentOS is that it offers significant advantages over other operating systems, making it an excellent choice for users seeking reliability and security. Key advantages include stability, reliability, and being free and open-source. It provides 100% free usage, along with security and long-term support.

The most suitable feature of CentOS is its exceptional stability, security, and long-term support, which make it a popular choice for enterprise and server environments.

CentOS is widely recognized for providing a stable and secure platform, especially suited for server and mission-critical workloads. Whenever we face critical work, it is easy for our team to handle. For long-term support, each CentOS release generally guarantees long-term updates, ensuring reliability for extended periods.

For package management, we use YUM and DNF in the new version for flexible and efficient software management.

It depends on our users' requirements for installing CentOS.

Licensing for CentOS is above my management details, so I am not aware of this information.

CentOS always provides good feedback, is easy to handle, and easy to troubleshoot.

The experience with CentOS OS has been very good over the last two months.

I rate CentOS nine out of ten.

CentOS  is basically the community edition of Red Hat, and to get the flavor of Red Hat, users can visit centos.org to download the CentOS  distribution and install it in their virtual machine, VirtualBox, or any Hyper-V  platform. It gives users the Linux operating system based upon the Fedora flavor, providing an overview of how the enterprise version of RHEL  looks similar to CentOS, though the features are very different.

I have been using it for many years now for my own testing and working with the operating system and Linux features. It's mainly for testing and checking Linux features. For application development and server management features, we have been using CentOS for many years. It offers a wide variety of testing cases and checking Linux features as server management. Linux distribution such as CentOS has many features related to server management, checking storage and networking facilities, and integrating with use cases. One of the key specific projects I worked on was testing server administration-related work such as file protocol testing using SMB and NFS, and checking features for networking and other use cases.

CentOS is an open-source platform that is free to use, which is one of its unique features. It's an operating system that offers a foundational view of Linux systems and has been a go-to operating system for a long time. Even though I've used other versions such as RHEL , SLES, and others including Rocky Linux , AlmaLinux , and Oracle Linux , CentOS remains a top priority for my daily use cases.

The package management, security, and stability are the main aspects that stand out. Linux's built-in framework provides different layers of security on the file, permissions, and system levels. CentOS offers flexibility in package management features and excellent stability. The installation process is straightforward, even for someone with a basic foundation in Linux, making it user-friendly.

CentOS offers a secure environment with security mechanisms such as SE Linux and firewall protections. You can have a secure setup by having the necessary permissions for users and maintaining system-level access. Users who are not root have minimal command execution abilities, whereas root and sudo users have extended privileges.

Organizations using CentOS save on subscription costs and can run their applications effectively without upgrading to other versions such as RHEL. CentOS helps organizations and startups in cost optimization and application development.

The documentation and support could be improved, along with compatibility with newer hardware as hardware continually evolves over time. Additionally, if CentOS could receive better marketing and promotion, it might gain more traction among vendors, software developers, educational institutions, and colleges.

There is always room for improvement in any product, irrespective of challenges or how good the product is. In the current scenario with cutting-edge technology, improving the product to benefit a larger community would be a positive step.

I have been using CentOS for more than eight years.

Complex setups are not necessary. CentOS's simplicity and stability make it easy to use. It's scalable and user-friendly.

CentOS is scalable and user-friendly without requiring complex configurations.

The documentation and community support are great. I've seen many people across the globe interacting, and when users encounter issues, the community provides solutions. I faced an issue long ago, and it was resolved through the open-source community forum.

I have only used RHEL besides CentOS. RHEL is the enterprise-level flavor of CentOS itself. It's almost identical to CentOS.

The installation of CentOS is simple, offering both minimal and GUI installation options. A typical layman with a basic Linux foundation can easily navigate through the installation process.

The enterprise subscription cost is at a certain level, but CentOS saves customers from paying additional money, optimizing costs for enterprises and startups involved in application development.

Many are unaware of this operating system due to its open-source nature, but adequate marketing could allow many vendors, software people, institutions, and colleges to leverage CentOS. CentOS is a straightforward, non-complex operating system that offers great use cases.

Documentation and community support are crucial, and CentOS has active community engagement to assist users facing issues.

There is always room for improvement irrespective of how good the product is. Embracing new technology is essential.

I rate CentOS a nine out of ten.