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In this article let us have a look at 2 very popular distros Elementary OS and CentOS and see where each distro shines so that you can pick one that best suit your needs!
For those of you in a hurry, here is the short version of the answer.
The Short Version Of The Answer
What are the differences between Elementary OS and CentOS? The main difference between Elementary OS and CentOS is Elementary OS is meant for users who need an aesthetically pleasing distro while CentOS is meant for beginner administrators who wish to experience the community version of RedHat’s RHEL
The table below highlights the important differences between the 2 distros
| Elementary OS | CentOS | |
| Organization Name | Founded by a small group of UX specialists with a strong focus on User experience.
Organization Type: Company |
About the organization: CentOS started as the community version of RHEL and later started getting direct support from RedHat similar to Fedora
Organization Type: Community backed by RedHat |
| Expertise Level Needed | Beginner | Intermediate/Advanced |
| Based On | Ubuntu | RHEL |
| Target Use-cases | General-purpose Distro.
Best Use-case: Media Consumption Beginner Linux Distro Other Use-cases: Since this distro is based on Ubuntu, this distro can be used as a workstation too. |
Specific purpose Distro. Best Use-case: Enterprise and server uses Other Use-cases: System admins who wish to try out RHEL |
| Software Support | 6/10 Out of the box software: 3/5 Software Repository: 3/5 |
8/10
Out of the box software: 3.5/5 Software Repository: 4.5/5 |
| Hardware Support | 7/10 Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 3/5 |
7/10
Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 3/5 |
| Hardware Resource Needs | middleweight | Middleweight |
| Support | 5/10 Paid support: Not available Community 3/5: Since this is based on Ubuntu’s LTS release, most problems can be solved through Ubuntu’s forums. Documentation 2/5: Very basic documentation available |
8.5/10
Paid support: Not Available Community: 4/5 Documentation: 4.5/5 |
| Ease of use | 8/10: Easy
But need to do a lot of post-install activities to get the best apps |
7/10
Intermediate/Advanced |
| Stability | 8/10: Stable
The Elementary apps are still in their early days and hence are not performing at their best all the time. But since this OS is based on Ubuntu LTS the distro is stable in the other aspects |
9.5/10 Very stable |
| Release Cycles | Releases are based on Ubuntu’s LTS release
Release schedule: Not fixed, Based on when the features are ready |
CentOS Linux: Fixed Release
(Around once 4 years) CentOS Stream: Rolling Release |
The graph below summarizes the table and compares the 2 distros and shows us how they compare with each other on various factors (Higher the points the better that particular feature is in a given distro)
That is just the short version of the answer, let’s go ahead and look at the longer and more informative version and learn more about the similarities and differences between the 2 distros.
The Linux Distributions World
The word Distro is short for “Distribution”. Since the Linux source code is open for everyone to see, large communities started evolving to bring together Operating Systems suited towards specific needs/goals.
These “specific needs/goals” include, but not limited to the following.
- producing documents
- writing programs and creating software
- editing pictures, videos, audio and multimedia-production related works
- store sensitive information by securing the operating system so that no one can hack into it or
- just browse the internet and consume media.
Say a community of people just wanted to browse the internet with their computers, then there is no point giving them the software to write programs in. Thus since every community’s needs and goals were different these communities started distributing built images of this operating system with all the essential tools installed. These prebuilt images are called distros!
If you wish to know more about the reason behind the presence of so many choices in the Linux World, I suggest reading the article given below.
Reasons Behind The Existence of SO MANY Linux Distros: An Analysis!
The Main Factors of Comparison
The factors mentioned above are just a small list of 100s of factors that differentiate distros. If you are either switching from some other OS to Linux or you are in the process of choosing your next Linux distro and you are confused which one to choose, you need to have a look at these top 5 decision-making factors
- Factor#1: Good Match with your Particular use-case
- Factor#2: Support for your favorite software
- Factor#3: Hardware Support and Proprietary Driver Support
- Factor#4: Your level of expertise in Linux
- Factor#5: Hardware Resource Needs
I have written a separate article explaining these factors which you can find in the link below
Top 5 Factors To Choose Between Linux Distros!
Let’s have a look at each of these important factors and see how Elementary OS and CentOS compare against each other.
Factor#1: Good Match with your Particular use-case
By use-case, I mean the type of work you are going to be doing on your computer. The Linux distro world originated because of the difference in use cases.
Elementary OS’s goal is wildly different from that of CentOS’s.
Let’s have a brief comparison between Elementary OS and CentOS in terms of goals, target users, and best use cases to employ these distros.
| Elementary OS | CentOS | |
| Goal | To make an aesthetically good looking and stable distro | To be the community version of RHEL |
| Target users | Users of Mac OS that are trying to move to Linux | System admins who wish to get a flavor of RHEL’s features and security |
| Best Use-Cases to Employ the Distro | Best Use-case: Media Consumption Beginner Linux Distro
Other Use-cases: Since this distro is based on Ubuntu, this distro can be used as a workstation too. |
Best Use-case: Enterprise and server uses
Other Use-cases: System admins who wish to try out RHEL |
Factor#2: Support for your favorite software
If your main work involves some specific software or the latest versions of a given software then that becomes a decision-making factor for choosing a Linux Distribution. So before fixing on a given distro, be sure to google if that distro has official support for your main software needs.
The factors you need to be considering include the following
- Out of the Box support: The software that the distro ships with.
- Repository Support: The curated software that is available on the official repos
- Type of release cycle: This decides the trade-off between up-to-date software and stable tested software.
- Availability of Graphical Software managers
- Package manager used: This can decide the ease of which you can install and uninstall software
Let’s see how Elementary OS and CentOS fair up against each other in the category of Software support
| Elementary OS | CentOS | |
| Out of the Box Software | 3/5: The elementary OS comes with very basic apps, and even those apps are not perfect which means if you don’t like the apps, you need to search for replacements | 3.5/5
Comes with just the basic apps as this distro is meant for system admins and not a typical everyday Linux user |
| Repository Support | 3/5: The official repo is still in the early days but you can install all the Debian packages through the command line. | 4.5/5
The CentOS is based on RHEL which means you get access to all the RHEL packages! |
| Type of release cycle | Releases are based on Ubuntu’s LTS release
Release schedule: Not fixed, Based on when the features are ready |
CentOS Linux: Fixed Release
(Around once 4 years) CentOS Stream: Rolling Release |
| GUI Software Management Tools | Available
App center |
Available: Software center |
| Package manager used | APT and Snap | dnf package manager |
The bar chart below summarizes the table above. As you can see, CentOS is better than Elementary OS in terms of Out of the box software support. CentOS is better than Elementary OS in terms of Repository support.
Hence, CentOS wins the round of Software support!
Refer to the article below if you wish to learn more about package managers.
A Beginners Introduction To Linux Package managers: apt, yum, dpkg & rpm
Factor#3: Hardware Support and Proprietary Driver Support
Not all Linux distros support proprietary drivers officially. Depending on your computer’s hardware, you may or may not have open-source driver support from the manufacturers. This is especially true for hardware such as graphics cards and network cards. Hence it is a good idea to take “driver support” into consideration while choosing your next distro.
The factors you need to be considering include the following
- Distro’s Policy of use of opensource vs proprietary 3rd party software
- Official driver support by Major Companies
- 3rd party driver support from official repos
- Support for older hardware
| Elementary OS | CentOS | |
| Distro’s Policy | Open-source drivers are chosen by default, but you can choose to use Proprietary during the installation process as they are officially supported | Only opensource officially supported |
| Official driver support by Major Companies | 4/5: Being Ubuntu’s derivative Elementary OS enjoys the drivers released for Ubuntu | 4/5 |
| 3rd party driver support | 3rd party repos available | 3rd party repos available |
| Support for older hardware | 3/5: Has good driver availability from Debian and Ubuntu, but there is no 32-bit processor support | 3/5: CentOS dropped support for 32-bit processors, but driver support for older hardware other than processor is good |
The bar chart below summarizes the table above. As you can see, both CentOS and Elementary OS got the same points when it comes to official driver support. Both CentOS and Elementary OS got the same points in terms of support for Older Hardware.
Hence, this round is a tie between CentOS and Elementary OS!!
Refer to the article below if you wish to have a look at some of the top distros in terms of hardware support.
Best Distro For Software And Hardware Support: A Comparison!!
Factor#4: Your level of expertise in Linux
Depending on your level of expertise in Linux, the choice of the distro you need will vary. This is because of the following factors
- Ease of use: beginner, intermediate, expert
- Paid customer support: available, not available
- Online community support: great, good, okay, not good, no support
- Available Documentation: Great documentation, Good documentation, Okay documentation, no documentation
Let’s see the level of support available for Elementary OS and CentOS and see how they compare against each other
| Elementary OS | CentOS | |
| Ease of Use | beginner | 7/10
Intermediate/Advanced This distro is meant for admins, hence some might not be available |
| Paid Customer Support | Not available, hence might not be the best choice for organizations | Not available, but you can always upgrade to RHEL and get the support needed with minimal changes as CentOS is essential the same RHEL! |
| Online Community Support | 3/5: Since this is based on Ubuntu’s LTS release, most problems can be solved through Ubuntu’s forums. | 4/5: good |
| Documentation | 2/5: Very basic documentation available | 4.5/5 Great documentation |
The bar chart below summarizes the table above. As you can see, CentOS is better than Elementary OS in terms of online community support. CentOS is better than Elementary OS in terms of Documentation.
Hence, CentOS wins the round of User support!
Factor#5: Hardware Resource Needs
This is an important factor if you are planning to employ Linux on a computer with limited hardware resources. This may be an old machine or a new one with less than stellar specs.
The factors you need to be considering include the following
- Category: Lightweight or Middleweight or Heavyweight
- RAM Requirements to have a snappy system &
- Minimum processor requirements
Let’s see how Elementary OS and CentOS fair up against each other in terms of Hardware resource needs
| Elementary OS | CentOS | |
| Category | Middleweight | Middleweight |
| Minimum RAM requirements | 4GB recommended (no minimum requirements given out officially) | 1.5GB minimum |
| Minimum Processor Requirements | dual-core 64bit recommended (no minimum requirements given out officially) | Only 64-bit processors |
Refer to the article below if you wish to have a look at a step by step guide for choosing a Linux distro for your computer’s specifications.
A Complete Guide For Choosing A Distro For Your Computer’s Specs..!!
The Results!
Let us know go ahead and see the results of our comparison! Have a look at the Bar chart below.
As you can see Elementary OS wins in Ease of use.
CentOS wins in Software support, Hardware Resource needs, User support, and Stability.
There is a tie between the 2 distros in Hardware support.
I suggest you pick the distro that best suits you based on this graph. For example, if hardware support is more important to you, then pick the distro that has better support for your hardware!
Summary
To summarise the article here is the comparison table from the beginning of the blog again.
| Elementary OS | CentOS | |
| Organization Name | Founded by a small group of UX specialists with a strong focus on User experience.
Organization Type: Company |
About the organization: CentOS started as the community version of RHEL and later started getting direct support from RedHat similar to Fedora
Organization Type: Community backed by RedHat |
| Expertise Level Needed | Beginner | Intermediate/Advanced |
| Based On | Ubuntu | RHEL |
| Target Use-cases | General-purpose Distro.
Best Use-case: Media Consumption Beginner Linux Distro Other Use-cases: Since this distro is based on Ubuntu, this distro can be used as a workstation too. |
Specific purpose Distro. Best Use-case: Enterprise and server uses Other Use-cases: System admins who wish to try out RHEL |
| Software Support | 6/10 Out of the box software: 3/5 Software Repository: 3/5 |
8/10
Out of the box software: 3.5/5 Software Repository: 4.5/5 |
| Hardware Support | 7/10 Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 3/5 |
7/10
Official driver support: 4/5 Support for older hardware: 3/5 |
| Hardware Resource Needs | middleweight | Middleweight |
| Support | 5/10 Paid support: Not available Community 3/5: Since this is based on Ubuntu’s LTS release, most problems can be solved through Ubuntu’s forums. Documentation 2/5: Very basic documentation available |
8.5/10
Paid support: Not Available Community: 4/5 Documentation: 4.5/5 |
| Ease of use | 8/10: Easy
But need to do a lot of post-install activities to get the best apps |
7/10
Intermediate/Advanced |
| Stability | 8/10: Stable
The Elementary apps are still in their early days and hence are not performing at their best all the time. But since this OS is based on Ubuntu LTS the distro is stable in the other aspects |
9.5/10 Very stable |
| Release Cycles | Releases are based on Ubuntu’s LTS release
Release schedule: Not fixed, Based on when the features are ready |
CentOS Linux: Fixed Release
(Around once 4 years) CentOS Stream: Rolling Release |
Hope you have got enough data to choose between these 2 amazing distros!
And with that, I will conclude this article!
I hope you guys enjoyed this article and learned something useful.
If you liked the post, feel free to share this post with your friends and colleagues!
Related Articles
Here are some of my other articles that might interest you!
What Is The Best Linux Distro? Analysis & Comparison..!!
A Step By Step Plan To Learn Linux..!
Best Linux Distro For Workstation: Analysis and Comparison!!
A Complete Guide For Choosing A Distro For Your Computer’s Specs..!!
Best Distro For Software And Hardware Support: An Analysis.!!
Distro-Hopping, What, Why & How Explained!
Reasons Behind The Existence of SO MANY Linux Distros: An Analysis!
