The last few years have seen the emergence of a new kind of Linux: the enterprise distribution. Enterprise distros are built for the demanding world of the enterprise corporation, and they are designed for stable performance and a long shelf life. These qualities are highly prized in the world of business, and for that reason, enterprise distros command a very high price.
If you're looking for an enterprise-ready Linux distribution, but you're not ready to pay the premium rate, you may be the perfect candidate for CentOS. CentOS is a fully functioning, stable, and ready-to-use enterprise distro without the high price. We are proud to bring you CentOS 4.2 as this month's Linux Magazine DVD.
CentOS is based on the source code from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This month's DVD is equivalent to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 update 2 - a state of the art Linux system that retails for anywhere from US$ 179 to US$ 1499.
This industrial-strength Linux is yours absolutely free. Just plug in the Linux Magazine DVD and start the installation. As a special bonus, this month's DVD comes with both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of CentOS.
The high-end pedigree of CentOS makes CentOS 4.2 the perfect tool for server applications. You can use CentOS as a web server, mail server, database server, or application server. CentOS also comes with all the sophisticated Windows compatibility features included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. You can use CentOS as a primary or secondary domain controller or as a Samba-based SMB-based server for Windows clients.
CentOS is also a fully functioning desktop Linux system. You'll find many of the most favorite desktop tools, such as OpenOffice.org 1.1.2, Mozilla 1.7.12, Firefox 1.0.7, Evolution 2.0.2, Gaim 1.3.1-0.el4.3, X-chat 2.4.0, Konqueror 3.3.1, Gimp 2.0.5-5, Gnome 2.8, and KDE 3.3.
Whether you are working with an enterprise server, a small office server, or even an ordinary desktop system, you'll find that CentOS is a stable, high-performance Linux distribution that is easy to manage and easy to use. Plug in this month's Linux Magazine DVD and explore the exciting world of CentOS, the community enterprise Linux.
| How you can Help |
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CentOS is produced by a team of 11 volunteers who are known as the CentOS Project. These developers donate their time and resources to the project, and they are not compensated in any way. CentOS is totally free to download and use; however, if you have the ability to donate monetarily to the project, it would be greatly appreciated. We would like to be able to send developers to major Open Source meetings around the world to better represent CentOS at these events. There are also 14 servers currently controlled by the CentOS project that have been donated by service providers around the world. We use these servers to distribute CentOS to the 70+ donated public mirrors around the world, provide Bittorrent seeds, host our website, provide our DNS and mailing list services, and support everything else the CentOS project does. If you are using CentOS and can donate a server (and bandwidth) to the CentOS project, or donate mirror services for the CentOS tree, these gifts would be greatly appreciated. If you are interested in donating time, money, or server space, please see: |
| Help & Support |
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CentOS is a community-based project and all help is provided by volunteers. For help and support, see the project's web forums at: http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/. You can also try the CentOS mailing lists: http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo You can reach CentOS IRC channels on irc.freenode.net (#centos, #centos-devel, #centos-mirror, #centos-ppc, #centos-sparc), and the CentOS bug database is at: http://bugs.centos.org/ |
| Highlights |
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CentOS can serve as a replacement for Server Message Block (SMB) domains using Samba 3.0.10. CentOS and Samba can be used as a secure Primary or Secondary SMB Domain Controller, SMB File Server, or SMB Print Server. CentOS also comes with OpenLDAP 2.2.13 and the smbldap-tools from IDEALX S.A.S http://www.idealx.org/. You can use CentOS as an Internet mail server with Sendmail 8.13.1, Postfix 2.1.5, or Exim 4.43.1. Also included are Squirrelmail 1.4.3 web mail, along with Dovecot 0.99.11 and Cyrus-Imapd 2.2.12 for POP3 and IMAP support. Use CentOS as an Internet web server with Apache 2.0.52 and php 4.3.9. CentOS comes with the MySQL 4.1.12 and PostgreSQL 7.4.8 database servers. Other 3rd party servers, like Oracle 8i, 9i and 10g, and IBM DB2, will run on CentOS, however, they are not officially supported by the providers. CentOS also comes with the vsftpd 2.0.1 FTP server, the freeradius 1.0.1 RADIUS server, and NFS 1.0.6. Also included are desktop applications such as OpenOffice.org 1.1.2, Mozilla 1.7.12 , Firefox 1.0.7, Evolution 2.0.2, Gaim 1.3.1), X-chat 2.4.0, Konqueror 3.3.1, and Gimp 2.0.5, as well as the Gnome 2.8 and KDE 3.3 desktops. |