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Old 5th August 2008
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scottro scottro is offline
Real Name: Scott Robbins
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: NYC
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CentOS is RH based--the default install is, oddly enough for a desktop user, and has no gcc by design. One has to choose to install development tools during install.
Basically, what you need is

yum -y install gcc gcc-c++ make kernel-devel

This should pull in the other necessary programs.

The reason I say oddly enough is that RH is aimed, so they (RH) say, at the server market, conceding the desktop to Ubuntu. On the other hand, one can argue that adds security to not put compilation tools on a server, and it turns into a bikeshed discussion.

My biggest complaints against RH are the gaps in their docs, and their increasing focus on their GUI tools. An RHCE friend who has worked for them comments that they take great pride in those tools.

CentOS often seems more concerned with proper documentation and QA than is RH. For a Linux server, I consider it an excellent choice.

There's a few articles of mine on their wiki. (Not always credited, usually the name on an article will be the last person who edited it--for example, I got an email from someone about their FreeNX article, because I'd done a very minor edit at the end.)

Ubuntu, though it might be, in many cases, for those who hate Windows, in many other cases, it's for the guru who is just tired of having to configure the system to get the basic things working, and simply wants a base where he can do the more interesting things. I know a few like that.

Whatever you want to say about Ubuntu and Mark Shuttleworth, I think that they have probably done more for OSS (as in open source, not the thing we all like better than alsa) than just about anyone. He's brought it into the mainstream, and it's probably one reason that so many of these hardware manufacturers are shipping with Linux. That can only help the BSD group too, meaning that there will be more drivers. Perhaps it's because I'm not a programmer, but I have less against binary blobs than many folks, as long as it will work.

I'm not saying this is a good choice on my part, it's just my personal feeling. It may come back and bite me one day if it turns out that they have hidden stuff phoning home, but at present, it seems there are enough knowledgeable people integrating the blobs so that that isn't an issue at this point.

As FloridaBSD says, Ubuntu does have flexibility with its ease of use. Additionally, its popularity means that one will almost always be able to find someone to help solve a problem.
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