I really enjoy Debian "Etch" on the desktop, it's been fantastic for me. But not everybody has the same needs, and choice is good. :)
As for your Cent 4.3 installation Big B, we're actually at 4.4 now, so you might want to do a system upgrade:
Code:
[I]# Let's get root first.[/I]
[B]su - root[/B]
[I]# Now we will see if there are updates for the update tool:[/I]
[B]yum -y update yum[/B]
[I]# Since we're at the latest version of yum, let's do the whole system:[/I]
[B]yum -y upgrade[/B]
Also, you'll probably want to keep your CentOS system up to date, so it's a good idea to write an update script, drop it in your /etc/cron.daily/ and make it executable. Then the OS will run it for you every night when your daily cron is scheduled to run (an interval typically between the hours of 00:00 and 04:00). Here's a sample script for you, the one that runs on my CentOS servers (though it'd be identical on a Red Hat box, as they the same OS):
Code:
#!/bin/sh
echo "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
echo "~~~ Checking for updates to yum ~~~"
echo "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
/usr/bin/yum -y update yum
echo "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
echo "~~~ Checking for system upgrades ~~~"
echo "~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
/usr/bin/yum -y upgrade
...mine's called
/etc/cron.daily/yummy ...get it?
Yummy? Oh forget it. :P
One last thing I'd like to suggest is adding the RPMforge repository. Adding RPMforge to your existing repos will give you access to an additional 62,000+ packages. For RHEL4/CentOS4 on a 32-bit PC, you can setup RPMforge as a repo with just one command (copy & paste):
Code:
[B]rpm -Uhv http://dag.wieers.com/packages/rpmforge-release/rpmforge-release-0.3.4-1.el4.rf.i386.rpm[/B]
For other architectures, see
here.
IMHO, CentOS (aka Red Hat Enterprise Linux) is primarily designed for stability, ease of management, and security. Along with the Red Hat enterprise mindset comes one big disadvantage: slow release cycles, which translates to stale packages. Having a release of Apache which is a few minor versions behind the development tree is no big thing; all the plugins work, you're still getting security patches, and the web client connecting has no idea. Also, on production / development workstations the version of KDE you're running is not a huge concern. But for a desktop machine, the latest stable version of KDE, Amarok, or the kernel can make a huge difference for gaming, multimedia, responsiveness, and the overall enjoyment you'll have with the system. For that reason I prefer to have a more developmental build of Linux on my desktops, and stick with more stable releases for servers (e.g. CentOS/RHEL 4.4, Debian "Sarge", etc).
