

CentOS 5.6 Finally Arrives: Is It Suitable for Business Use - sixtofour
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8608/

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sixtofour
Free registration required to read the whole thing.

a) This reads like a hit piece. Are things as bad as the author makes out? Are
users frustrated, and snubbed when they offer help? Is the project really
falling behind in users' opinions?

b) The article states that RHEL support subscription is $350/year. Excepting
very young and poor businesses, I can't understand why a business that uses
CentOS for its enterpriseness, and includes that in sales pitches, wouldn't
just go directly to RHEL. Is there anything about CentOS besides $free that
makes it better, in an enterprise context, than RHEL?

~~~
stock_toaster
I didn't read the whole thing either (due to registration).

> Are things as bad as the author makes out? Are users frustrated, and snubbed
> when they offer help? Is the project really falling behind in users'
> opinions?

Look at the release history on wikipedia[1]. It was about 3 months from RHEL
5.6 to the Centos release, and it was been about 6.5 months since RHEL 6 was
released (twitter account[4] says 'soon').

If you look at the mailing lists, it seemed (last time I looked) like a
slightly unhealthy project, at least to this outsider. See "rollout
strategies"[5] (skips around a bit) and "Door not hitting me on my way out"[6]
(also skips around a bit).

I am hopeful that this all gets turned around (and it may already be turned
around, I am not up to date) though, as Centos has been great for me in the
past.

> The article states that RHEL support subscription is $350/year. Excepting
> very young and poor businesses, I can't understand why a business that uses
> CentOS for its enterpriseness, and includes that in sales pitches, wouldn't
> just go directly to RHEL. Is there anything about CentOS besides $free that
> makes it better, in an enterprise context, than RHEL?

I imagine for many it is indeed just about the cost. If you look at the RedHat
purchasing guide[2], it can get quite expensive.

Aside: I know a few people who have looked into moving over to Scientific
Linux[3]. I haven't heard how their testing has gone though.

[1]:
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Centos#Releas...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Centos#Release_history)

[2]: <http://www.redhat.com/rhel/purchasing_guide.html>

[3]: <https://www.scientificlinux.org/>

[4]: <http://twitter.com/#!/centos>

[5]:
[http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2011-May/thread.htm...](http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2011-May/thread.html)

[6]:
[http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2011-April/thread.h...](http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2011-April/thread.html)

<edited for formatting>

