On Laptops: Thoughts On Using CentOS, Ubuntu LTS, and Fedora

I recently participated in a discussion in a CentOS group I belong to about the suitability of CentOS for ordinary laptops. These were my thoughts, mostly taken from various points in the discussion and edited into a coherent whole. Is CentOS really good for laptops? Like so many things it depends on what you intend to do and what software you're going to use.

I use CentOS 8 on several laptops and it mostly works well. It may be missing some drivers you might need. If so, ELRepo is a good source for those. You definitely won't find the number of apps you do in Ubuntu's repositories and will need to go with third party repos. The best of them is EPEL, maintained by the Fedora project. You can leave both ELRepo and EPEL enabled to get updates as needed probably 99.8% of the time. The rare conflict can be avoided by setting repo priorities in dnf to insure official repos have precedence.

If you need to go to third party repos beyond that pull packages manually. Some repos conflict with each other or, on rare occasions, with CentOS packages. If you can stick with EPEL you avoid that.

One thing Ubuntu does that CentOS does not do is automatically download and install proprietary packages required by some hardware. For example, I use an Epson all in one printer/scanner/copier. I had to get drivers and apps directly from Epson's website and install them manually. The good news is that Epson provides rpms for Red Hat Enterprise Linux that work perfectly well with CentOS.

In my opinion CentOS is more difficult to setup and configure than Ubuntu on a typical laptop and to the find and install all the apps you want. However, if you do that work it's rock stable and reliable. It's also every bit as easy to keep up to date and secure as you will get notifications when updates and patches are available and can install them with a click.

I never recommend Fedora. I don't like being forced to upgrade the OS as a whole frequently. For me laptops are for getting things done, not tinkering. I've also had too many problems with packages being updated without the requisite dependencies causing breakage in Fedora. I recommend either CentOS or Ubuntu LTS for those reasons.

I haven't found any reasonably modern hardware on which I couldn't make CentOS work. The question is how much work does it take and how difficult is the process. That varies widely. One caveat: I've been working with Linux professionally since 1995. What's easy for me may not be easy for someone who has limited experience. Of course, for them, working through issues may be a great learning experience.

I have yet to have a clean install of CentOS on a laptop that requires no further action, including laptops by ASUS, HP, Lenovo, and Toshiba. That may be because of hardware or because of how I use my laptops. Usage patterns make a huge difference. In general, for most people, Ubuntu LTS is going to be easier to install, configure, and add software to than CentOS. Once installed both are stable, reliable, and reasonably easy to use. Both work well.

List of Linux System Hardening Resources

My recent post about how quickly newly commissioned Linux systems can be attacked and possibly compromised led to a bunch of e-mail queries about resources which explain how to lock down a variety of Linux distributions. Most such guides are distribution specific because, while the basic principles are always the same, there are significant differences between distributions and even versions of the same distribution that make writing a generic guide difficult at best.

I did compile a list which I added to the comments. However, based on the number of questions I've received I thought it would be best to publish the list as a blog post, something people could easily find and bookmark, with some additions to what I originally posted. I've limited this list to distributions commonly used in businesses (large and small), academia, and in non-profits. I have not included specialized distributions, including those designed for use by security professionals. Most of these distributions also are excellent choices for personal use.


Red Hat Enterprise Linux / Centos / Scientific Linux / Springdale Linux

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide
  Chapter 4: Hardening Your System with Tools and Services
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Security Guide
  
• University of Texas Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Hardening Checklist
  
• CIS Red Hat Enterprise Linux Security Benchmarks

Debian

• Securing Debian Manual
  
• Debian Wiki: Hardening

SUSE

• Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 Security and Hardening
  
• OpenSUSE Security Portal

Ubuntu

• Harden Ubuntu
  
• Ubuntu Community Help Wiki: Security

32-bit Enterprise Linux Still Matters

I've been testing the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Release Candidate. One thing that stuck out right away was the lack of a 32-bit x86 build. In last week's DistroWatch Weekly Jesse Smith questioned the need for such a build, which is only useful on legacy hardware, in the enterprise. He wrote:

"Something which caught my attention while reading this question was the requirement for a 32-bit operating system with newer software than Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 offers. It seems unusual that someone would want new software versions, enterprise support and a 32-bit operating system. New software and legacy hardware (or new software and enterprise environments) rarely go together and it might be worth looking into whether these criteria are really necessary."

While I certainly understand Jesse's point about 32-bit being legacy hardware, there are still many use cases where 32-bit and current enterprise quality software and OS are necessary. Many current Linux apps are still very light and can run very well on rather old hardware, both in the server room and on the desktop.

I've done a lot of support of government servers and they run for about forever, as in until they serve no further use. Even retired, old servers are often repurposed and put back into service due to budget restrictions and/or long lead times to order new equipment under the required procedures for government procurement. In the United States this is especially true at the state level. When a server is repurposed it is usually reloaded with the current enterprise standard Linux distrubution release and applications, not legacy releases. That's one common use case.

Non-profits and small businesses often get by with older equipment as well, and in the case of non-profits it may even be donated second hand equipment that was no longer useful in it's former commercial enterprise home. Once again, a 32-bit OS and current software makes sense in cases like this.

My personal hope is that the free enterprise Linux clones will take Red Hat's 64-bit sources and create a 32-bit version. It isn't hard to do but it is time consuming. CentOS has already made clear they will release a 32-bit build(see comment by developer Johnny Hughes below), which leaves Scientific Linux and Springdale Linux.

[Note: This article was expanded from my comments on DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 560.]