CentOS is an operating system that represents a large Linux family. This OS is distributed
for free and is one of the most popular Linux distros for servers. Virtual Linux servers are
often cheaper than their Windows counterparts, while Linux stability and security meet or
exceed Windows standards.
CentOS is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Unlike many other distros, such as Debian or
Ubuntu, CentOS is based on the RHEL source code. Many users believe that this provides a
higher level of reliability.
New versions of CentOS appear quite infrequently, every 3–4 years. But this is hardly a
drawback, since a lot of attention is paid to the selection of software for each new version of
CentOS, which will then be supported for a long time. Releasing the most stable versions is
the policy of the CentOS developer community.
The advantage of CentOS is the long life cycle of each OS version — 10 years.