CentOS 7 : Operating System
CentOS (Community Enterprise Operating System), is a free distribution open-source operating system derived entirely from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The CentOS operating system is one of the most popular Linux distributions which provide a stable, predictable, manageable, reproducible platform with 100% binary compatibility. The Linux distribution operating system can be used by developers, private sector, webservers, businesses and large corporations.
▪️What are the features in CentOS 7?
The CentOS 7 has the best features derived from RHEL 7 such as a new numbering scheme which help keep packages updated. Before CentOS 7, upgrading major point releases required reinstallation of the whole operating system. Also, the processing and memory addressing has moved to 64-bit which now fully supports the virt-v2v command tool, GNOME, and LibreOffice suite. Based on previous releases, depending on the CentOS version, different requirements are placed on the hardware. For example, CentOS 7 requires 1GB of memory and 20GB of hard disk space. A previous version such as CentOS 5 comes with 512MB of memory for control of the GUI. Several major changes in the operating system that pertain to booting up and managing the system include the “systemd” which controls how services are started up, as well as system settings. A new method of managing firewall also includes “firewalld”. What are the hardware specifications required in CentOS 7? CentOS Linux 7 for 64-bit x86 compatible machines conforms fully with Red Hats policy which aims to have full functional compatibility. The CentOS 7 version includes GRUB2, LXC, and docker. The Linux kernel updated to 3.10.0, support for Linux containers, 3d graphics drivers, Open JDK 7, support for 40G Ethernet cards, and UEFI installations in secure boot mode. Below are some charts to specific hardware requirements in CentOS 7 compared to past versions.
▪️What are some of the vulnerabilities/ limitations in CentOS 7?
The platform’s superior stability encounters few bugs, security holes, and doesn’t necessarily need new releases as often. Due to its release cycle, CentOS tends to be supported by the operating system the next release update won’t be available until June 2024. Because Linux does not dominate the market like Windows, it is far more difficult to find applications to support needs. This includes support for open-source, companies must pay fees through support channels offered by Linux distribution companies. CentOS can’t offer the exclusive support of the commercial template, thanks to the binary compatibility. However, the open-source system runs various applications and security features that is completely free to use.
▪️What is the underlying Kernel in the Linux operating system?
The CentOS 7 operating system has a 64-bit processing kernel and ISOs are only available with the latest version along with a kernel update to 3.10.0. The kernel is the brain of the operating system, Linux kernel is monolithic so the architecture is working in kernel space and is alone in supervisor mode.
▪️What is the projected end of life in CentOS 7?
The lifecycle depends on the reasonable efforts to maintain binary compatibility across releases. Furthermore, the backward-compatibility libraries allow for easy migration of applications.
The CentOS releases are built from publicly available open source code provided by Red Hat. (Below is chart of the CentOS projected life cycle.)
https://www.cloud7-itconsult.com/services/table-of-comparison-linux-distributions-lifecycle