Send in the Clones: The Long Wait for CentOS 6

If you're looking for a free Red Hat clone why not just use Scientific Linux? They currently have 6.0 beta2 out so a final release will be available shortly. The have the live version, an "everything" installable DVD, a "TUV" installable DVD that is meant to be identical to RHEL with nothing added, and a network install image.

Scientific Linux has the added advantage of being used by FermiLab, CERN and other major research institutions and universities around the world and has at least some funding from Western governments as a result.

I have nothing against CentOS at this point. A number of my clients are running CentOS 5.5 and it is rock solid. The issues with getting security patches out have been resolved. The only questions which come up periodically are governance and infighting between developers, which sadly is all too common in FOSS projects. The quality of the code is excellent at this point and is not in question by anyone AFAIK. OTOH, if they are not able to deliver a 6.0 release yet and Scientific Linux is then I see no reason not to use SL.

I've been growing increasingly impatient waiting for centos 6.

At work we're indeed moving from SLES to RHEL but some of my side gigs don't want to spend money on enterprise licenses so centos made a lot of sense. I'll check out SL.

@herzeleid: I think you'll find SL entirely satisfactory. The TUV version really is a true clone of RHEL. The Everything version has some useful packages. What extras are included is well documented on the SL website. Security patches and other errata come every bit as quickly (and in the past when CentOS was slow, more quickly) than CentOS.