CentOS 6 is an incredible viable alternative to Windows 8

Linux has come into its own. The best release Rightardia has ever seen is CentOS 6.

According to the developer:

CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor. . .CentOS is developed by a small but growing team of core developers. In turn the core developers are supported by an active user community including system administrators, network administrators, enterprise users, managers, core Linux contributors and Linux enthusiasts from around the world.

CentOS has numerous advantages including: an active and growing user community, quickly rebuilt, tested, and QA'ed errata packages, an extensive mirror network, developers who are contactable and responsive reliable Enterprise Linux class distribution, multiple free support avenues including a wiki, IRC Chat, Email Lists, Forums, and a dynamic FAQ.

It is essentially a clone of Red hat Linux. As Wikipedia notes: 

CentOS is a free operating system distribution based upon the Linux kernel. It is derived entirely from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution. CentOS exists to provide a free enterprise class computing platform and strives to maintain 100% binary compatibility with its upstream source, Red Hat.[2] CentOS stands for Community enterprise Operating System.

RHEL is a commercial Linux release that provides technical support for an annual subscription  The "shareware version of RHEL is called Fedora, but lacks some of the features of the commercial software. 

The install is simple and takes about 15 minutes. 

First things, First

If you are considering an upgrade to Windows 8, this might be appropriate if any of the following apply: 

1. You are using unique software that is not available  in Linux 
2. You are using unique hardware that does not have Linux drivers. See http://www.linux-drivers.org/

In the past, Riightardia has run into issues with Linux network and wireless drivers  scanner drivers and printer drivers. Windows has a much broader range of drivers than Linux.

Also, there is lot of propitiatory software in Windows that may not have have a counterpart  in Linux that will import existing Windows files. 

The Linux advantage 

Linux is free software for non-commercial use.There is no cost. if you are using your computer for standard business or home applications, browsing and email. you don't need Windows. 

Apache LibreOffice provides most of the key feature of Microsoft office. Linux comes with a variety of browsers and email clients. 

Microsoft Word does have a better grammar check than LibreOffice writer. 

Older PCs runs fine

Rightardia recently installed CentOS 6 on an Old Dell Pentium Optiplex 260GX with 1.5gB ram, 250 GB hard drive and AGP video. The PC boots in about 70 seconds and You Tube videos display immediately.

Rather than buying a new PC that can run the latest Windows resource hog, just install the CentOS on your old PC. you will be amazed how fast your PC now is. 

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CentOS

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