CentOS 5.0 is out

The CentOS project (Community ENTerprise Operating System) is a free enterprise-grade operating system built by recompiling Red Hat Enterprise Linux’s source code. In practice, it’s free RH Linux for people who don’t need Red Hat’s technical support. Not long after Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 arrived, CentOS 5 appeared too. The current release supports 32-bit and 64-bit x86 systems. The next version will also support Sun SPARC, IA-64 (Intel Itanium) and PowerPC.
It’s hard to judge how widely the distribution is used, but hosting companies like it and use it extensively. The CentOS project provides some user support and even has a security team, although neither comes close to the corresponding services at its big brother: Red Hat.