Slinux/CentOS/RHEL for daily home use?

All3n · 07-04-2012, 02:18 PM

I have been playing around with Slinux 6.2. It really appeals to me compared to some other distributions.

Now the base of my question is, do I generally have to use older versions of software?

Example, Firefox 3 is default, I can upgrade to 10, my windows machine is on version 13. Not really a big deal in this case, I'm fine with the "older" browsers.

Another example is Blender, when I install from package manager I get version 2.4, whereas 2.6 is current.

Is it a matter of using different Repos, or some kind of work around?

The thought of having problems running "current" versions of programs takes away the appeal of using it for a "daily" computer.

I am fairly new to this game so I could be stating the obvious here.
I want to learn RHEL, and thought using it as my main OS would be cool.

Any thoughts or experiences appreciated.

acid_kewpie · 07-04-2012, 02:22 PM

RHEL and its variants are for enterprise servers. They need stability and security, NOT super floaty sexy bleeding edge software etc. I would *never* recommend using EL for a desktop / laptop system. The closest desktop OS would be Fedora, which is fundamentally around to make RHEL's mistakes and tests for them, so it's not always stable and not really intended for newbies etc, even though it's generally felt to be totally usable by them.

JasonR · 07-04-2012, 02:49 PM

All3n, have you been to the scientific linux forums? You'll find answers to what's available and how to get it.

I use sl6 for home use on my 6-year-old laptop. In the last two years I've gone from Ubuntu 10.04 to Xubuntu 11.10 to Fedora 16 Xfce to sl6. I like sl6 with gnome2 best. Very fast and stable.

All3n · 07-04-2012, 02:50 PM

I was worried about that. I can keep it on my lab/server computer though.

I played around with Fedora a little bit before SLinux, thought I would try out the "stable" side of the project. Actually your calculator in your sig recommended Fedora too.

For day to day use I suppose it has all the functionality I would need.

Too bad there wasn't something in the middle, perhaps an older version of Fedora?

All3n · 07-04-2012, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonR

All3n, have you been to the scientific linux forums? You'll find answers to what's available and how to get it.

I use sl6 for home use on my 6-year-old laptop. In the last two years I've gone from Ubuntu 10.04 to Xubuntu 11.10 to Fedora 16 Xfce to sl6. I like sl6 with gnome2 best. Very fast and stable.

Cool, good to know.

I have tasted a few Ubuntu's over the years too. They were OK, I too like SL6 the best.

I have read a few posts at that forum, and many others, I will have a closer look.

acid_kewpie · 07-04-2012, 03:11 PM

well no, you can't really use older versions of fedora, it has a very short lifecycle on purpose, so older distros rapidly run out of support. You need to stay current really, last 3 versions at the oldest.

All3n · 07-04-2012, 04:03 PM

Duely noted.

snowday · 07-04-2012, 04:06 PM

If your needs are basic (web surfing, document editing, media consumption), then really any distro will do the trick.

I've had excellent luck with CentOS/Scientific Linux for desktop/laptop/netbook use. I was not hampered by the older software at all, and the few apps that I wanted to install newer versions (Firefox for example) were easily available from the project websites.

You can get a fairly stable Fedora experience if you stay 1 release behind. For example Fedora 17 is the current; if you use Fedora 16 and then upgrade to 17 when 18 is released, you'll be fine.

All3n · 07-04-2012, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowpine

If your needs are basic (web surfing, document editing, media consumption), then really any distro will do the trick.

Day to day that's what it gets used for.

Basically anything any issues I would have with Scientific linux, I would have with the other Linux distros, and they may or may not be stable or LTS.
Issues like needing to use some Windows based programs or maybe games, new hardware or hardware compatibility, possible driver issues etc.

EDIT: I know about wine, but it does not always work with the latest version of Google sketchup, and if I work with those files on a newer Sketchup, I won't be able to view it on the older version with wine.

taylorkh · 07-04-2012, 05:25 PM

Hi All3n,

I just went "live" with CentOS 6.2 on my primary home desktop Saturday. It is running about 98% +/- 1% to my liking. I am in the find an issue fix and issue mode. Only one major one but I think I have it nailed. Let me share a little about the machine and what I do with it and why I chose CentOS.

Dell Studio 8000
i7-860 CPU
8 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 5450 512 MB
Crucial SSD 128 GB boot drive
(old) Samsung SSD 16 GB for swap (surplus from my netbook)
WD Caviar Black 750 GB for backup and bulk storage
2 LCD monitors

I started out this PC about 2 1/2 years ago with Ubuntu 9.10. I then installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and had been running that until now. Ubuntu was on a WD VelociRaptor 150 GB 10 K RPM drive. Fast but not as fast as the SSD. I was pleased with Ubuntu except for a suspend/resume issue which I eventually remedied by replacing the nVidia card with the ATI card. As support will be ending for Ubuntu 10.04 in a few months I decided to start looking for a replacement. I do not like the new Ubuntu Unity interface. The gnome 3 fallback is OK but... I found that my dual display setup (separate desktops/panels on each monitor) would not work with Ubuntu nor a couple of the 'buntu variants I tried. Not at all.

Back when I was working on the suspend/resume issue I tried installing CentOS 6. It was stable with the nVidia card and I was considering replacing Ubuntu at that point except for a couple of apps which were not available. VLC media player being the real show stopper. This time around I did not see any choice.

This time around I have all of the desired apps installed and working (except for a few tweaks which I made years ago in Ubuntu and have forgotten about). As far as then being older versions... Firefox is currently 10.0.5 in the CentOS base repository. Thunderbird is also 10.0.5. I copied my profiles from Ubuntu FF 13 Thunderbird ? and they are working fine.

As to repos... Have a look at https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb...28724&forum=54 Check out the information about yum-priorities. It is critical. I am using the base repository and RMPforge, ELReop and EPEL. I believe the extra ones can be used with Scientific Linux as well.

As to what I use the PC for... It is my main day to day PC. Web, email , Usenet (Agent and GrabIt running under wine), videos with VLC, burning CD/DVDs with K3b, handy dandy utilities gnome-commander and Beyond Compare. I use Open Office for such work and used it for many years in Windows prior. My Brother 240c Scanner, Printer, etc. works fine as does my Brother HL5170DN networked laser printer. I use cups-pdf to "clip" news articles from the web for posterity.

As to a couple of odd things... I have an expense tracking app which I wrote in Fox Pro for DOS in 1993. It runs GREAT under dosemu! I also have a considerable number of data bases created in FoxPro Windows and Visual FoxPro which I access with Visual FoxPro under wine. For anything else which I need Windows or a different distro I use VMWare Player. I have a number of virtual machines handy and a bunch more archived on my server.

Bottom line - Scientific Linux or CentOS will provide a stable, reliable platform. There are always ways to run cutting edge programs but I would rather not risk hosing my system. I hate installing and configuring the OS. RHEL 6.2 and its off spring are supported until 2020.

The only way to really know is to try it. See it you can run the apps which are important to you. Have a look over at the CentOS.org forums. A lot of good info specific to CentOS/RHEL/Sci Linux.

Ken

p.s. Two other pieces of advise.

1 - Backup as you go (and thereafter of course). I use Clonezilla to snapshot the drive as my build goes along. And I have stepped back a few times during the process.

2 - Take notes as you go. For what it is worth, here are my build notes

Code:

Build notes from taylor12 - CentOS 6.2 64 bit on Crucial 128 GB SSD.

Started with basic "Workstation" installation from DVD1.
Partitioned disk as 16 GB /; 8 GB /home; rest as /data. All ext4, no swap.


Applied all updates.

--- Created Clonezilla image of whole disk as 2012-06-21-20-t12-CentOS-6.2-64-base ---
--- Restored Clonezilla image as a test ---

************************************************************
* Select Clonezilla expert mode                             *
* 	create MD5 and SHA1 sums on create image            *
* 	set d0 NOT install GRUB on restore image on restore *
*                                                           *
*************************************************************

installed all updates (used rpm files previously download to save time)

Downloaded ATI catalyst program and driver from web site. File is amd-driver-installer-12-4-x86.x86_64.run

Ran the installer file
Rebooted
Ran Catalyst program as root, 
Select left monitor (shown as #2) and set monitor to "Single display desktop (Multi-desktop)" 
Select right monitor (shown as #1) and set monitor to "Single display desktop (Multi-desktop)" 
Saved and rebooted 2x to fix duplicates on panel. Somehow the damned thing worked. Saved the xorg.conf file.

Add yum priorities per wiki and configure. Use wiki suggested values to start

yum install yum-plugin-priorities
vim /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf
vim /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo 

Add RPMForge (DAG) repository

rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt

download the rpmforge rpm, verify and install

rpm -K rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm
yum localinstall rpmforge-release-0.5.2-2.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm

vim /etc/yum.repos.d/rpmforge.repo

Set priorities [rpmforge] 10, [rpmforge-extras] 10, [rpmforge-testing] 10.
Only enable [rpmforge]

Download epel rpm
yum localinstall epel-release-6-7.noarch.rpm 

vim /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo
set priority=30 and disable elep repo (will enable as necessary)

yum clean all

Configure Brother laser printer - add; network printer; find; enter IP address; select HL5170DN Postscript driver 

n.b. Do not print a test page at this time. Try it later. The first one hangs.

Install cups-pdf from EPEL

yum --enablerepo=epel install cups-pdf

edit /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf - change output files location and do not duplicate file names.

n.b. Do not leave Admin; Printers configuration dialog open. It will hang installation.

Install the Brother MFC240c

Download these files from Brother

mfc240clpr-1.0.1-1.i386.rpm
mfc240ccupswrapper-1.0.1-1.i386.rpm
brscan2-0.2.5-1.x86_64.rpm      
brscan-skey-0.2.3-0.x86_64.rpm  

yum locall install in the order shown above

brscan-skey -l will verify that the scanner is present. No missing dependencies were found and the process worked just fine.

Install xsane

yum instll xsane.

reboot and test printers, xsane

--- Created Clonezilla image of disk as 2012-06-21-21-t12-CentOS-6.2-64-ready ---

Ready to install software!

VMWare has issue with video driver.

add ELRepo repository 

rpm --import http://elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
rpm -Uvh http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-6-4.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm

vim /etc/yum.repos.d/elrepo.repo
set priority=5
disable all - will enable as needed

yum clean all

remove ATI factory driver

run /usr/share/ati/fglrx-ininstall.sh
reboot

yum --enablerepo=elrepo install kmod-fglrx
reboot
copy working xorg.conf file to /etc/X11/
reboot a couple of times more
remove fast user switcher if it barfs

--- Clonzilla image as 2012-06-22-21-t12-CentOS-6.2-64bit-ready-elrepo ---

Install VMWare player and test - OK
Install vlc from rpmforge and test - OK

kill the freaking sounds
System; Preferences; Sounds; Sound theme : No sound

other packages to install from downloaded files

dosemu-1.4.0-12.2058svn.el6.x86_64.rpm
truecrypt-7.1a-linux-x64.tar.gz
bcompare-3.3.4.14431.i386.rpm
FoxitReader-1.1-0.fc9.i386.rpm
hjsplitlx.tar.gz

other packages from repositories

gnome-commander
k3b
thunderbird
gsmartcontrol (epel)
wine (epel
recoll 
stunnel

edit /etc/hosts

--- Clonzilla image as 2012-06-23-15-t12-CentOS-6.2-64bit-software ---

configure wine does not work - wine-gecko missing - package is available in rpmforge-testing - installed it and still does not work.

On this page http://wiki.winehq.org/Gecko

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine_gecko-1.0.0-x86.cab
mkdir -p /usr/share/wine/gecko
mv wine_gecko-1.0.0-x86.cab /usr/share/wine/gecko/

Configure Wine from menu

Install under wine:
	GrabIt
	Agent
	WinRar
	DVD Shrink (full installer from softpedia.com)
	QuickPar
	Copy VFP98 to ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files

install gimp 
copy hjsplit executable to /usr/share/hksplit/  and create launcher on right panel

--- Clonzilla image as 2012-06-24-23-t12-CentOS-6.2-64bit-wine-progs ---

forgot to install samba and gimp - installed with yum
install Bitdefender - no problem this time
install vinagre
use Disk Utility to set label on sda1 (data)

--- Clonzilla image as 2012-06-25-15-t12-CentOS-6.2-64bit-software-final ---

Start configuration

stunnel
create ssh keys for t9, t10, t13wl (do not need it for client only I believe)'
copy modified stunnel.conf from t13 to /etc/stunnel/ (comment out chroot lines)
modify stunnel script from http://www.gaztronics.net/ to correct path to stunnel
copy the file to /etc/rc.d/init.d/
chkconfig --add stunnel
chkconfig stunnel start
confirm with System; Administration; Services - should auto start

Copy smb.conf from Ubuntu to /etc/samba/

gnome-commander Connect to server hot key Ctrl-S
Copy test /data files
Create custom launchers

OpenOffice
file:///data/data/OpenOffice
folder.svg

Scripts
file:////data/data/scripts
shellscripts.svg

Phone Log
file:///data/data/phone.log
category_phonecalls_16.png

Expense Tracker
dosemu (has custom autoexec.bat)
category_time-and-expenses_16.png

DSL-IP
file:///data/data/DSL%20IP%20History
edit-add.svg

FoxPro
"/home/ken/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Vfp98/VFP6.EXE" 
fox.bmp

HJSplit
/usr/bin/hjsplit
hksplit.png

TOR
/data/tor/tor-browser_en-US/start-tor-browser
TOR.jpg

Firefox Backup
firefox -P "yesterday"
firefox.png

Agent
env WINEPREFIX="/home/ken/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\Agent\agent.exe"  "d:\data\agent\apn"

GrabIt
env WINEPREFIX="/home/ken/.wine" wine C:\\windows\\command\\start.exe /Unix /home/ken/.wine/dosdevices/c:/users/Public/Start\ Menu/Programs/GrabIt/GrabIt.lnk
Need to enter credentials into GrabIt and set to localhost to use stunnel. Also configure directories

install gconf-editor
Apps; Nautilus; Desktop to remove unwanted icons

Set there to Clearlooks and set background

Copy files from //usr/share/doc/HTML and set Firefox start page to file:///usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html (actually it was set to this page, a CentOS default - oh well)

Disable thumbnails - gconf-editor - Desktop; Gnome; Thumbnailers [X] disable_all

Enable trim in /etc/fstab

Change login to no user list

gconftool-2 --direct --config-source=xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults --type bool --set /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/disable_user_list true

Recoll copy old file to: $HOME/.config/Recoll.org/recoll.conf
- set database location with config gui
- need to do a little more tweaking through the gui.

--- Clonzilla image as 2012-06-25-23-t12-CentOS-6.2-64bit-config-1

Samba not working. Need to adjust selinux and firewall. See http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/SetUpSamba

Major fubar - sda2 set to 80 not 8 GB!  Used pmagic_2012_06_26.iso to fix.
Recreated sda3 with Disk Utility (as root) copied UUID to /etc/fstab entry

--- Clonzilla image as 2012-06-27-19-t12-CentOS-6.2-64bit-resize ---
Samba not working - need to fix selinux etc.

Adjust /etc/sysconfig/iptables

add -s option
-A INPUT -s 192.168.0.0/24 -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 445 -j ACCEPT
also for stunnel
-A INPUT -s 192.168.0.0/24 -m state --state NEW -m udp -p udp --dport 119 -j ACCEPT

delete ports 137, 138, 139 which were added by firewall tool

service iptables restart

yum install policycoreutils-python to get semanage

[root@taylor12 ken]# which semanage
/usr/sbin/semanage
[root@taylor12 ken]# semanage fcontext -a -t samba_share_t '/data(/.*)?'
[root@taylor12 ken]# semanage fcontext -a -t samba_share_t '/quitelarge(/.*)?'
[root@taylor12 ken]# restorecon -R /data
[root@taylor12 ken]# restorecon -R /quitelarge

replace /etc/samba/smb.conf with one from Ubuntu 10.04 and issue service smb restart. Tests OK.

copy custom autoexec.bat to ~/wine/drive_c to start expense tracker

create config.fpw file in ~/wine/drive_c/Program Files/Fpw98

Add ken to sudoers to enable mounting of TrueCrypt volumes
visudo
add line at end
ken    ALL=(ALL)   ALL

yum install flash-plugin and lock macromedia directories (chmod -x)
increase panels to 32 pixels

--- Final Clonezilla Savedisk - 2012-06-30-14-t12-CentOS-6.2-64bit-prod ---

Copied /data from Ubuntu 10.04

Installed alacarte to edit menus
Added alacarte to menu under System; Preferences

gconf-editor /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel/padding - set to 2 from 8 - now can fit date/time

Installed unrar to add rar capability to File Roller

Big issue - after going to screen saver the backlight will not come back to full. 
gconf-editor
gnome-power-management
	backlight
		idle_brightness = 30 (change to 100)

GVS metadata CUP issue - not yet seen on CentOS but decided to chmod -x ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata but this causes periodic crashes of gvfs-metadata so set it back.

Installed iotop to look into hard disk thrashing issue

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installed old 16 GB SSD for swap
Mounted as /dev/sdc
mkswap /dev/sdc1 (this formats and changes UUID)
blkid /dev/sdc1 to learn UUID
vim /etc/fstab add line:
	UUID=63653486-4f34-4b09-b1e9-37ce79c3478f  swap                    swap    defaults 0 0
swapon -a
VM performance seems much improved although it does not appear that swap is being used?

Encrypt swap per wiki at http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/EncryptTmpSwapHome

[root@taylor12 ken]#  modprobe dm_crypt
[root@taylor12 ken]# lsmod | grep dm_crypt
dm_crypt               13022  3 
dm_mod                 81692  9 dm_crypt,dm_mirror,dm_log

vim /etc/crypttab
swap    /dev/sdc1   /dev/urandom    swap,cipher=aes-cbc-essiv:sha256

vim /etc/fstab
/dev/mapper/swap                           swap                    swap    defaults 0 0

seems to work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

stunnel - needs to be run as a service to allow VM to connect!
Installed stunnel in XP VM

Lower panel contains a separator at the left edge. Unlock an move to right to allow placing Show Desktop at the left. Move separator back and lock.

gksu does not seem to be available in CentOs. Try installing beesu from epel. Seems to work. Still an issue with gnome-system-monitor. Cannot see ALL processes.

ssh to t13 would not work - Agent failed or something like that - logout and login and it now works.

Backlight dimming acting up again. Tweaks made it worse. From the previous snapshot I found these settings which seem to work.

gconf-editor
	gnome-power-manager
		backlight
			battery reduce [X]
			brightness_ac 100
			brightness_dim_battery 100
			dpms_method_ac off
			dpms_method_battery off
			enable [X]
			idle_dim_ac [X]
			idle_dim_battery [X]
			idle_dim_time 10

installed kchmviewer from epel to handle chm files

Changed k3b not to eject disk after burning. I think that is the fix for the lockup when trying to verify.

Changed Nautilus not to show thumbnails and not to brows media when inserted.


ToDo
----
migrate Enigmail keys 

Defer
-----
VMPlayer Daemon killer
kill `ps -A | grep vmplayer-daemon | sort | awk '{print $1;}'`
scheduled every 5 minutes if necessary

unSpawn · 07-04-2012, 06:21 PM

As it matured Fedora has proven to be pretty much stable. Unless you're willingly running Rawhide b0rkage is ridiculously exaggerated by some. I've been running it on several desktops and laptops since Core 1. (OK, it should be obvious more recent Fedora versions are way more polished in every aspect and of course I'm no average user). Also there's nothing wrong with running Centos or Scientific Linux as your day-to-day desktop though you have to contend yourself for example with what version of Python they deem stable and such. And if you want Firefox / Thunderbird 13.x just get it from the source and run it, NP whatsoever only libxul.so needing textrel_shlib_t.

All3n · 07-04-2012, 09:53 PM

unSpawn, thanks for your reassurance. I think I am going to try that out in the AM. (Firefox and Thunderbird)

taylorkh, thanks for your effort as well. Good idea about taking notes, I am getting to that point now, it would sure make it easier to do any changes etc.
That's a neat use for that old laptop SSD, nice to see things get reused like that.
I will check out that CentOS thread on Repos, I want to try and avoid creating conflicts. Although I did read that you could just enable a repo to install something and then disable it.

Speaking of backups I am pretty much to the point were I want to make the first backup image. I did a fresh install this morning, I finally had success downloading the InstallDVD last night. (I need that vs the LiveCD for some future network installs on some VMs)

I would also like to look into torrent clients. I would like to use this current testing/lab computer for a local file server and torrent box. I might use it at nighttime to fall asleep watching shows and downloading torrents. (I'm assuming it consumes less energy then my new build FX4170) This is just an additional interim use for the old computer I was thinking about. Happy Fourth of July!!

I have an nVidia 9600GT, that in the past performed dual monitors with reasonable effort. If I was to upgrade my video card down the road, would it be safe to say that ATI generally plays better with Linux then nVidia?

taylorkh · 07-05-2012, 07:57 AM

The multiple repo thing is the biggest challenge I see in moving from Ubuntu. I was spoiled as everything except a couple of hand installed packages came from the Ubuntu repos. As you say it is possible to have a repo disabled by default and enable it only as necessary. That is how I have EPEL set. Last evening I had the need to isntall kchmviewer which is used to view chm format files.

yum search kchmviewer did not find it in any enabled repo
yum --enablerepo=epel search kchmviewer found it and
yum --enablerepo=epel install kchmviewer installed it

This process and yum priorities should in theory keep thing on the up and up. Except for the case where an update appears in a disabled repo. It appears that I need to do a periodic manual update thusly:

yum --enablerepo=epel update

I need to get into the routine of doing it.

As to torrent clients... I think Transmission was the client installed by default on Ubuntu. I only used it a couple of times. I am more into Usenet. That said... my netbook, a Dell Latitude 2100 is my main Usenet downloader. It draws about 7 - 8 watts compared to 140 - 160 for the big desktop. When it had only its original 16 GB SSD I had a 16 GB SD Card which I used for extra storage.

And regarding the old 16 GB SSD... It was going to be a boot drive for the old Pentium 4 desktop which my wife uses for Internet and some occasional office documents. However, the BIOS would not detect the SSD. And when VMWare threw a tantrum for having no swap even though it did not use any swap... seemed like the thing to do. I may look at moving some of the temp directories to the old SSD. I had read an article about optimizing an SSD configuration which talked about moving some temp stuff to RAM to unload the SSD. Now if only I can find the link...

From what I have read the nVidia cards are better supported in Linux than ATI. From what I have experienced... The dual display has been the only challenge with either brand or with some built in video cards. The original nVidia card in the desktop worked with the dual displays after some tweaking of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The problem was that when I suspended the PC and then powered it back up I often found that I had been logged out and all of my running apps had been closed. This was an insoluble nVidia vs. Ubuntu issue. nVidia and CentOS 6 was OK and Ubuntu and ATI was OK. Who can tell?

Ken

p.s. If you use Clonezilla for backup... Use the "Alternate stable" version (The one I have is based on Ubuntu Precise) and select Expert options when restoring. Uncheck the choice to install grub. Clonezilla will overwrite the restored grub with an incompatible version. The one on the alternate version will work but it looks different. I think it is grub 2 vs. grub 1.something which I think RHEL et. al. still use.

All3n · 07-05-2012, 09:33 AM

I did get a copy of the alternate stable (Ubuntu), as well as partedmagic. I might burn one of each just for the heck of it. I don't recall at the moment which version of clonezilla is included in partedmagic, perhaps that will dictate which utility to use. I would imagine the partedmagic utility still might be handy to have around for working on windows mahines.

I will do a bit of research today into torrent clients. There was a couple that I wanted to try that work with Fedora.

Thanks again for the tips on clonezilla. I will have my Windows box running, if I have any problems with it maybe I can google my way out.

DavidMcCann · 07-05-2012, 12:14 PM

If you're the sort of person who frets because you've got version 2.4 when other people have version 2.6, then you're unlikely to be happy with CentOS!

As you can see, it's my main OS. For me, finding all the software took some time. Claws-mail from EPEL, codecs from RPMfusion, Gnome-mplayer from atrpms, Agave from Fedora 13, Fontforge from Fedora 16, Wine 1.2.1 from Mandriva 2010, etc.