CentOS 5.4 The Real Deal
I promised that I would try the full install version of CentOS 5.4 desktop on my thinkpad and didn’t want to disappoint, so here it is…
I actually had a really hard time with this one. That is not to say that I believe that there is an issue somehow with CentOS, but certainly something odd with the lappy at the very least. For some reason, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the installer to run correctly on the dvd. Or more correctly put, on any of several dvds. The installer would just randomly crap out in different places. Finally I just tried an old CentOS 5.3 dvd in an external dvd player, and that finally did the trick. Besides, it only takes one quick “yum -y update” from there and you’re at 5.4 anyhow.
Like the live version (or should that be the other way around) the full install of CentOS 5.4 is quite good looking and very snappy. It uses the gnome desktop and has all the goodies you would expect from a full blown enterprise desktop. It also carries, smartly, the software that I personally use in a day to day basis – firefox, thunderbird, openoffice, etc.
You know, I almost dislike reviewing this particular distribution because there is nothing particularly exciting about it other than it does what I like for a business desktop distribution and does it quite well. The same goes for the server install, both available from the same dvd, you get a true, reliable enterprise class Linux that “just works” ™ like it’s supposed to. I guess, that is the exciting part. You get a good Linux without having to tweak and mess with a bunch of things.
This sure isn’t a *home* desktop Linux. There’s no easy support for multimedia, so I wouldn’t go springing this on mom and dad, but for a business desktop, you just can’t go wrong here. And just FYI, there are plenty of good instructions on how to get your media on within a quick google search.
As unexciting as this sounds, I am still going to get a more permanent desktop install of this somewhere in my house. Just like I run some servers at home on CentOS, it sure couldn’t hurt to have a really stable and quick workstation somewhere within easy reach too!