A recent survey showed CentOS to be the most popular distro for web-servers. So how does it fare on a desktop?

The 64-bit version comes on 2 DVDs, but the 32-bit version is squeezed onto one. Unfortunately, that one has to be a DVD-, which is a bit irritating if you only have DVD+/-. The installer gives the choices of a minimal CLI install; basic, web, or database server; minimal, full, or development desktop. I tried all three desktops and every time I landed up in a console after re-booting, with no explanation in the logs of what had happened to the GUI. Finally I discovered the problem was that each time I had used the ‘customise now’ option to add extra items. If you do this, it reverts to a minimal install, and you need to select every category of software you want.

Once a successful installation was achieved, it all worked. The programs were not the latest versions, but they were very sound versions: not one left a warning when run from the command line. The website has excellent documentation, including instructions for safely using the EPEL and RPMFusion repositories. If you want a stable system for free, especially if you want the Gnome desktop, this is it.