Comparison of CentsOS and Ubuntu

Please see below  the comparison between CentOS and Ubuntu. The information is collected from different forums and official sites.

              

Characteristics	CentOS	Ubuntu
Base kernel/OS	Red hat ( non-com. Enterprise)	Debian
Focus	Server Distribution	Mainly Desktop / Server based also
Package Management	Good	Better
Number of Packages Available	5785	24088
Release Cycle	Long cycle release    ( 2 years more or less)	Short and LTS release ( 6 month for short cycle release)
Upgrade Difficulty	Live Upgrade is not  recommended	Live upgrade is very easy through apt-get tool
Stability	Yes	Yes, LTS specific
Latest Stable Release	5.8, 6.2	12.4 - LTS
Security	Better	Good
Patch Management	Not better than Ubuntu	Better Patch Management

CentOS is better than Ubuntu in terms of Security feature but in all other aspects Ubuntu is better option. Note that, CentOS is widely used as server based OS. Package maintenance and dependency is one of the main problem in linux which is well controlled by Ubuntu. Ubuntu focus was mainly desktop based but it is also available in server version with stable release.