CentOS future?

[jmcconnell]

I teach Linux+ at the local community college using the current CompTIA Linux+ book. We implemented the labs in the book too... which use Centos7. I'm curious to know if the version of Linux used in the materials will change due to the announcements about CentOS future?

Thanks!

 

[Stephen Schneiter]

I teach Linux+ at the local community college using the current CompTIA Linux+ book. We implemented the labs in the book too... which use Centos7. I'm curious to know if the version of Linux used in the materials will change due to the announcements about CentOS future?

Thanks!

That is a great question. My response off the top of my head would be yes. The Linux+ certification will renew this summer, so there will be a new line of content and labs that will be released. I am sure the developers will be addressing changes to CentOs, either moving to CentOs Stream or another distro entirely.

 

[Lee McWhorter]

I would assume yes as well. Everything gets updated every three years.

 

[jmcconnell]

Hoping to attend the Linux+ TTT this summer! @Lee McWhorter - you teaching that one too?

 

[Lee McWhorter]

Indeed I am and looking forward to it! Will be good to see you there @jmcconnell

 

[jasoneckert]

Nearly everything you do on CentOS will work seamlessly on Fedora without modification.
So, if you've been using CentOS in labs, you can replace CentOS with Fedora easily.

Fun fact: Fedora is the Linux distro that Linus Torvalds uses on all of the computers in his house.

 

[Rick Butler]

Not to mention that there are plenty of installs of CentOS 6 and 7 out there that will still need supporting. Microsoft cut support for Win 7, Server 2008, and the like, but that doesn't mean that IT specialists won't encounter that tech in the field, and some of the exam and training material still speak to those older platforms. I think CentOS will follow that basic same strategy for the conceivable future, even if CentOS isn't called out specifically.

Or we can all go for broke, just start teaching on Arch. After all, getting it to work is half the fun, right?

 

[Wajih]

Actually, the new distribution supposed to replace CentOS is Rocky Linux.
It is very stable and providing exactly the same features and approach than the old CentOS.

Personally, I think that CentOS still can be used since the only difference for the end user is the EOL for each release which is shorter that before (of course here I'm talking about CentOS Stream compared to CentOS)

 

[Rod Oatis]

I teach Linux+ at the local community college using the current CompTIA Linux+ book. We implemented the labs in the book too... which use Centos7. I'm curious to know if the version of Linux used in the materials will change due to the announcements about CentOS future?

Thanks!

What future are you referring to? Moving from v8 to Stream 9 is not a deal-breaker. I am building labs (Skillable) using Stream and have not seen any issues.

 

[jmcconnell]

What future are you referring to? Moving from v8 to Stream 9 is not a deal-breaker. I am building labs (Skillable) using Stream and have not seen any issues.

We have students install Oracle VirtualBox and then download a CentOS 7 VM that we've created with all the lab setups that are in the CompTIA Linux+ instructor guide. They use that VM for our intro and advanced Linux+ courses. Would Stream 9 work in that sort of environment?

 

[Lee McWhorter]

I would bet so, especially if @Rod Oatis says so, he knows his stuff!

 

[Rod Oatis]

We have students install Oracle VirtualBox and then download a CentOS 7 VM that we've created with all the lab setups that are in the CompTIA Linux+ instructor guide. They use that VM for our intro and advanced Linux+ courses. Would Stream 9 work in that sort of environment?

I have Stream 9 running in VMware Workstation, EXSi, and Hyper-V, but I will test in VirtualBox this weekend. BTW, the installer is pretty much the same, but the user interface has been 'upgraded' to have more smoothed edges.

 

[Tess Sluijter]

Nearly everything you do on CentOS will work seamlessly on Fedora without modification.
So, if you've been using CentOS in labs, you can replace CentOS with Fedora easily.

For my classes, I "make" my students use a Fedora Workstation and an Ubuntu Server VM. So yeah, another vote for Fedora being "good enough" to use for teaching.

Or we can all go for broke, just start teaching on Arch. After all, getting it to work is half the fun, right?

Get out.

 

[Jarrel]

We also use Fedora.
But some students push for using Parrot

 

[Rod Oatis]

We also use Fedora.
But some students push for using Parrot

When talking 'cyber' with students and other systems folks, we actually prefer Parrot to Kali. I date myself and still have VMs with Backtrack. Although Kali is it's evolution, Backtrack was more of a 'challenging' suite. Kali has a really good set up tools, but there's just something about the mental ease of Parrot.

I also used to use the Army Gold Disk, so that's not saying much.

 

[Tess Sluijter]

Thanks for the reminder about Parrot, @Jarrel and @Rod Oatis . I really should start using it as well, at least to investigate the product in general.

I feel plenty of people default to Kali simply because everybody has been defaulting to it for almost a decade now. It's kind of silly. I mean, I'm happy with all the hard work OffSec put into maintaining this distro, but as far as bloatware goes I think it's pretty safe to say that most Kali users will never use >90% of what's pre-installed.

 

[Tess Sluijter]

On the subject of Parrot, here's some interesting discussion ->

The most upvoted comment points something out I hadn't thought of yet either:what's the actual source of what goes into Parrot? Basically it "just" builds on Debian and Kali packages.

As for my personal setup? I'm just happy running Ubuntu with Burp and a few other tools No need for a whole Kali / Parrot for my business needs.

 

[Rick Butler]

I feel plenty of people default to Kali simply because everybody has been defaulting to it for almost a decade now. It's kind of silly. I mean, I'm happy with all the hard work OffSec put into maintaining this distro, but as far as bloatware goes I think it's pretty safe to say that most Kali users will never use >90% of what's pre-installed.

I think you're right about this. I've tried, even, to go through the vast array of tools offered in Kali when I was spinning up for the CySA+. I especially like Drift, but that one is hardly mentioned. Creepy was also good for intelligence gathering, but that was long long ago, before Twitter cleaned up their meta.

I've tried Parrot and really didn't care much for it. Security Onion as well - just couldn't get into those distros. But are we talking about Linux for Sysad stuff or leaning more towards Cyber topics (since that seems to be the topic everyone likes...lol).

/r

 

[Tess Sluijter]

But are we talking about Linux for Sysad stuff or leaning more towards Cyber topics (since that seems to be the topic everyone likes...lol).

Good question.

And as far as that question goes I always tell my Linux+ students: "I don't care what you run at home, go have fun with it! But at the office, at work, you will most likely be expected to run whatever they have on offer. And that probably means Windows or MacOS on the desktop and RHEL or Ubuntu, or maybe Suse or Oracle, on the servers. You don't get to pick what you like in the Enterprise."

 

[jasoneckert]

It's probably important to note that the distribution you use in class for penetration testing or security assessments is irrelevant, as all of these tools can be installed on any Linux distribution.

Kali and Parrot are merely distributions that come preinstalled with many of these tools - but the distribution maintainers don't assume you are going to use Kali or Parrot for anything but security-related tasks, so they're rough around the edges when it comes to using them as a general-purpose workstation. And, of course, server distributions often do not contain a desktop environment at all.

In various courses in my college, we use Fedora for all courses that require a workstation distribution (including security courses). Since our security courses are taught following our automation course, we have students build an Ansible playbook that automatically configures Fedora with many of the same tools that you'd find on Kali/Parrot. When we need a server-based distribution, we use Ubuntu Server (no desktop environment, also in a VM).