No FUD Dept.: Difference between CentOS 5 versus RedHat Enterprise Linux 5

CentOS Enterprise Linux 5 is built from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code. Other than logo and name changes CentOS Enterprise Linux 5 is compatible with the equivalent Red Hat version.

Why RedHat giving away all their work for free?

RedHat doesn’t make it easy to use their work, so few distros like CentOS, Scientific Linux etc. have come up which uses their source code to create a compatible distribution after re-branding.

RedHat is forced to release the source code as they have built on top of Linux OS, which is a free operating system governed by the terms of GNU Public License version 2.

So why would anyone buy RedHat Enterprise Linux?

RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) purchase comes with professional support which can help you to adopt Linux easily for your organization.

Is CentOS supported?

CentOS has excellent documentation which you can use. Also any documentation for RHEL 5 is also applicable to CentOS 5. In addition there are mailing lists and newsgroups which you can go to for support.

On a personal note…

We have been using CentOS for several years. It is an excellent, stable operating system. We use it on our servers as well as for our desktops. I can highly recommend it.

Personally I find the online documentation enough for our needs.

Are CentOS 5 executables and RedHat Enterprise Linux executable binary compatible?

Yes, unless you use CentOS Plus repository.