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CentOS remains way behind in tracking RHEL, Scientific Linux does better, but Debian and Ubuntu deserve consideration, too

Posted by Steven_Rosenber on · 7 comments
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When you think "free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux," I bet CentOS comes to mind. But a look at the CentOS project over the past few years shows a considerable lag between when RHEL releases and CentOS catches up.

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Comments (7)

Steven_Rosenber Story submitter ·
I don't run CentOS at the moment, but I know many of you do. I read that the project is way behind RHEL when it comes to releases, but how far behind is CentOS when it comes to applying security patches that the upstream RHEL has pushed to its paid users?
number6x ·
Their fac says 72 hours for security updates, longer for bug fixes. http://wiki.centos.org/FAQ/General#head-cea9337e6513cc1567c4...

penguinist ·
Here are the repository time stamps from the last two kernel updates: 

RHEL: kernel-2.6.32-131.21.1.el6.x86_64 11/11/11 2:52:09 PM PST
  SL: kernel-2.6.32-131.21.1.el6.x86_64.rpm 22-Nov-2011 16:49   
  Ce: kernel-2.6.32-131.21.1.el6.x86_64.rpm 07-Dec-2011 13:28   
 
RHEL: kernel-2.6.32-131.17.1.el6.x86_64 9/29/11 12:26:44 PM PDT
  SL: kernel-2.6.32-131.17.1.el6.x86_64.rpm 06-Oct-2011 09:17   
  Ce: kernel-2.6.32-131.17.1.el6.x86_64.rpm 14-Oct-2011 17:34
Looks like Scientific Linux is beating Centos with security updates by nearly two weeks, but neither of them is getting close to a 72 hour standard.
number6x ·
Were these security updates or just normal updates? I think the 72 Hrs is just for security.
penguinist ·
Both of these kernel updates were classified by RedHat as security updates with a classification of "Important".
number6x ·
So now Steven has his answer. They say 72 Hours, but it's really 'whenever'.

Thanks @penguinist!
Steven_Rosenber Story submitter ·
Thank you for playing, everybody.

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