CONTEXT: There is a tremendous variety of linux distros available these days. Personal taste will guide this choice as much as anything, quite often. Clearly such factors can't be argued. However, in the context of a work environment being supported by limited IT technical staff, there are certain benefits towards standardizing on few (one) preferred linux distros, in order to ease management, installation, and support tasks.

Within this context, typically I believe that a good linux distro for a work environment:

  • must be very reliable / stable
  • should be easy to install, maintain, update
  • should co-exist with other unix environments as seamlessly as possible
  • "leading edge" // :"bleeding edge" feature support is NOT a requirement, since it is often counter-indicated with my first (stability) requirement. Thus, support for "the latest and greatest" video card (for example) isn't high on my list of priorities ; this may well be a preference a person has for their own home PC.

In light of these factors, I've become very keen on the CentOS linux distro. It is effectively a binary-equivalent derivative from Red Hat Enterprise Linux ("RHEL") but is compiled, assembled, and managed fully by (non-redhat-staff) volunteers. Updates, patches and so forth are released in tandem / shortly after RedHat releases updates. The life cycle for the product is twinned with RHEL. (~5 years for CentOS 4.X lineage, in theory)

Package management is done easily using built-in "yum" or "up2date" software. A wide variety of software is readily available via integrated RPM package sources, which automatically resolves dependencies and requirements. Thus, if you try to install "PackageA" and it depends on "Package B,C,D,E,F,G,H, and Q" -- then all these packages will be automatically downloaded, installed in the appropriate order ... in order to allow "Package A" to be installed.

Lots more could be said, but there is no need. I've got installer CD's available for anyone who would like to try it out (32-bit or 64-bit versions) and of course you could download your own ISOs and burn them yourself if you really want. (please don't do this during regular hours as it tends to saturate the POLAN network connection!)

TDC Sept-6-06