CentOS

CentOS is a Linux-based distro released on 14th May 2004 as an enterprise-class free and open-source OS. It is functionally compatible with its upstream source RHEL, otherwise known as the Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Gregory Kurtzer developed centOS with an aim to provide enterprise-class operating system stability without the need for additional support or cost of certification. It officially supports the x86-64, ARM64, POWER8, IA-32, and other variants of the ARM architecture.

‘yum’ is the home-grown package manager for CentOS. This means that anything that runs on it is compatible with RHEL Linux. It is one of the primary operating systems in the Amazon Cloud and Azure Cloud. CentOS shares almost 95% of its features with the RHEL architecture and is available for free. Compared to other Linux-based distros, CentOS is widely employed for its straightforwardness and fewer package updates.

In January 2014, CentOS announced that it’s officially teaming up with Red Hat while still being a standalone OS, under a new CentOS Governing Board. Towards the end of 2021, the distribution of CentOS was discontinued; however, the development of its midstream version, CentOS Stream, is still continued.