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Fedora is an obvious choice for desktop user. But it's rather bleeding-edge. Open Mandriva (actually, its granddaddy, Mandrake) diverted from RedHat in many ways long ago, it cannot be considered a RedHat-based distro. CentOS is stable, but it's for servers, not for desktop. Same for Oracle. Better stay with a Debian-based distro on desktop.
I'm running CentOS on this desktop just fine. It is (IMO) incorrect to say that CentOS is "not for desktop" Yes, it is (again IMO) ideal for servers, but that does not make it wrong for desktop use. There's no difference between CentOS and Fedora under the covers. Fedora is "bleeding-edge", CentOS is not. Think of it as a stable Fedora.
It started out as a Slackware fork but it soon drifted away from its roots. They use rpm packages, which they obviously borrowed from the Red Hat family.
Thank you very much for the information. People like the ones on this forums are the ones that make linux great, very supportive and no one argues like in other forums.
I used the Red Hat family for almost 20 years and was very satisfied. But it's not for anyone looking for the middle of the road. Fedora has a very short support period and can be rather bleeding-edge. CentOS, on the other hand, is not for anyone who demands the latest software. One point not mentioned here is that they are very centered on the Gnome desktop. Most of Red Hat's configuration tools will not display their help files without the Gnome help tool, and a couple of tools are not even present without Gnome. If, like me, you hate Gnome, the solution is to install the Gnome version and then add the desktop of your choice and switch to it. It's getting more difficult to implement non-Gnome environments in CentOS — it took months for CentOS 8. That's why I'm no longer using it — I needed a new desktop in a hurry at Christmas and CentOS 8 was still Gnome only.
Some-one once described Debian in a review as a great server distro inadequately ported to the desktop. If half the distros are based on it, it not just that they use its huge repository — they also think they can make it more user friendly. And again, you have the choice between the bleeding-edge Unstable and the very conservative Stable.
OpenSUSE is perhaps happier on newer hardware. It's also best with KDE. But the quality is generally good.
As you see, I'm using PCLinuxOS on my new desktop. It's rolling release — no more new editions to switch to! — but not bleeding-edge. Help is best obtained from its own forum, which is very friendly.
I used the Red Hat family for almost 20 years and was very satisfied. But it's not for anyone looking for the middle of the road. Fedora has a very short support period and can be rather bleeding-edge. CentOS, on the other hand, is not for anyone who demands the latest software. One point not mentioned here is that they are very centered on the Gnome desktop. Most of Red Hat's configuration tools will not display their help files without the Gnome help tool, and a couple of tools are not even present without Gnome. If, like me, you hate Gnome, the solution is to install the Gnome version and then add the desktop of your choice and switch to it. It's getting more difficult to implement non-Gnome environments in CentOS — it took months for CentOS 8. That's why I'm no longer using it — I needed a new desktop in a hurry at Christmas and CentOS 8 was still Gnome only.
Some-one once described Debian in a review as a great server distro inadequately ported to the desktop. If half the distros are based on it, it not just that they use its huge repository — they also think they can make it more user friendly. And again, you have the choice between the bleeding-edge Unstable and the very conservative Stable.
OpenSUSE is perhaps happier on newer hardware. It's also best with KDE. But the quality is generally good.
As you see, I'm using PCLinuxOS on my new desktop. It's rolling release — no more new editions to switch to! — but not bleeding-edge. Help is best obtained from its own forum, which is very friendly.
And I'll agree with DavidMcCann..I use openSUSE Tumbleweed (their rolling release), and have been very happy for years. I use KDE, but Gnome is easy to install later if you choose (you can actually choose Gnome, KDE, or XFCE at install time as your default). Also uses RPM packages, but instead of "yum install XXX" it's "zypper install xxx".
I've had one or two small issues with the rolling-release in the past several years, but nothing major. Always 'bleeding edge', but has also been stable. Personally, I'd not use CentOS or 'server' distros (like OEL or RHEL) as my desktop...have found spotty support in the past with consumer hardware, like bluetooth, sound, 4K monitors, etc. Easier to get such things working, but I'll grant you it's been a while since I've used such a distro for anything but a server. May have changed since, but as scasey says, you CAN use it...as with most things, it comes down to personal preference.
BTW: CentOS does have desktop environment, and I used to use it on my laptop for a while.
Switched to Fedora because it tend to have better drivers support for newer hardware
Thank you very much for the link. I don't know why people say that the linux community is toxic and unfriendly. I personally always find supportive and friendly people that always tried to help me without insulting me or other unpleasant behaviours.
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