For those of you out there that compute in a Red Hat way, both Cent and Fedora have been quite busy as of late.

The deal with the new CentOS is that the contribs repository is back with v5.3. In plain English this means more empowerment to the user (you) to submit and manage packages. There’s obviously more to 5.3, so read up on that if you like. CentOS is still one of the best Linux distros out there. It’s enterprise-style Red Hat Linux’ing is very attractive to many.

Fedora 11 is coming but the beta is available now. According to the Fedora team, a bunch of improvements are coming including cutting boot time, on-demand font and file support, new virtualization features and a lot more.

For those of you who like Red Hat or just the Red Hat style and are wondering which is better for you, the answer is dependent on what you want to do with the OS. If running servers and doing enterprise-style stuff is your thing, CentOS is better. If you want something more tailored to desktop use, Fedora is the better choice. This is not to say Fedora can’t do enterprise or Cent can’t do desktop. Both can do either. But each has their intended purpose.

If one were to ask which is better overall, that’s a really tough call because both are great.

Just about every week on the PCMech LIVE show I am asked (more or less), "Where do I go to get a list of Linux distros that people actually use?"

The answer I always give is DistroWatch. Is that place the be-all/end-all for all things Linux? No (because there are many), but it’s a darn good start to get the news on what’s going on with different distros.

On the right sidebar there is a list of 100 different Linux distributions sorted by hit ranking. This gives an indication of what’s being actively used/developed. It is not by any means a master list, but like I said it gives a good indication on what you can try out that other people use.

As of this writing, the top 10 are:

1. Ubuntu
2. openSUSE
3. Mint
4. Fedora
5. Debian
6. Mandriva
7. PCLinuxOS
8. MEPIS
9. CentOS
10. Puppy

Want to see the rest? Check out DistroWatch for yourself.

What sites do you go to for Linux distro information? Are they better or worse than DistroWatch?

Write a comment and let us know.

While it’s true Ubuntu has very dedicated followers, it can be argued that Fedora has users that are just as passionate about that Linux distro also.

If Linux is your thing and Ubuntu just doesn’t float your boat for whatever reason, you might want to consider Fedora. Just released is version 10, and here are some of the features included are:

Better printer support (setup, management, etc.)

With each successive release no matter what the distribution, printer support and management has improved. If your printer didn’t work in Fedora before for whatever reason, there’s a good chance it will now.

RPM update (to 4.6)

This is the way Fedora does package management. It’s been around a very long time, it works, and now it’s better.

Better webcam support

Generally speaking, support for webcams is a bit limited on Linux but Fedora has stepped up to the task of providing better support for these devices.

A whole lot more

You can check out the full feature list of 10 here.

You can download Fedora by heading over to the Fedora Project at http://fedoraproject.org/.

When hosting PCMech Live I have been asked more than a few times if it’s possible to run Linux on the PS3. The answer is yes, you can if you use the box as a development environment. Slashdot has an article on how you can put Fedora on a PS3 box with extra tips and tricks to get the most performance out of the unit.

Originally it wasn’t easy to get *nix to work on the PS3 but now it’s much easier than it was before.

So if you have a PS3 and were looking to do something different and interesting, there’s your project – with documentation.

There are times in the live chat were I’m asked what Linux distribution is used most. While that particular question can’t be readily answered, the site www.DistroWatch.com will to a degree indicate what distributions are being downloaded most.

On that site, scroll down and look to the right. You will see a “Page Hit Ranking” which by default will show hits in the last 6 months. This isn’t an end-all/be-all listing of what’s used most but it’s a good indicator.

At present, the top 5 are:

1. Ubuntu
2. PCLinuxOS
3. openSUSE
4. Fedora
5. Mint

If you were looking for somewhere that lists all the distros and how they’re faring out, DistroWatch is the place to be.