[kureikain]

I always scare of CentOS/Fedora. Whenever I updated something, it will be very old packages. Leading to use 3rd repo, and without any kind of document, the next sysadmin will be in trouble. I used to install Gearman on Centos 5.9 and it was a nightmare: the original 3rd repo didn't have gearman and I have to use other repo which is complain about PHP-Common conflicting. Remi and webtactic did help at the end.

It's hard to keep Centos Update to date with latest software IMHO.

I'm not an SysAdmin but I think the idea of APT and YUM is same but why it's so hard/trouble to use YUM?

[devicenull]

The issue is not the package manager, the issue is the repositories you're enabling. See https://iuscommunity.org/pages/TheSafeRepoInitiative.html for details.

[jamescun]

Fedora is the RedHat "testbed" and has regular updates similar to the debian/ubuntu universes.

One of the core features of CentOS/RedHat/Scientific Linux/etc is their longterm support and package freeze (excluding critical security updates). If you are reliant on a different version of software from the default repositories (both newer or older) then you are encouraged to build and package them yourself. Additionally in the RedHat-derivative universe there is the EPEL package repository which contains a wider range of software and is kept more readily updated in addition to being maintained by the Fedora Project (essentially RedHat).

[heroprotagonist]

Besides using third party repos, you can also use Red Hat Software Collections for the official Red Hat offering of more recent packages (requires RHN, not available for CentOS).

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Softwa...

As another approach to mitigating dependency hell, you might consider using Docker containers for your services.

[sciurus]

Software Collections are available for CentOS.

http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/SCL

[heroprotagonist]

Very nice, thank you.

[veeti]

Huh? Fedora is probably the closest you get to a bleeding edge distro without going rolling release.

[rplnt]

Only if you upgrade regularly. Support is very short and you'll get stuck without updates.

[TallGuyShort]

Perhaps it's what you're familiar with and the intended use case. I personally can't stand the way APT won't let you override certain behavior. RHEL / CentOS have always favored stability over being bleeding-edge, and in my experience EPEL provides enough newer software to make the system usable for most cases, although if you're wanting the latest frameworks, etc.. I can see that being incompatible with your needs. I have very rarely had any problems with broken dependencies in Red Hat repositories except for the occasional 15-minute hiccup. SUSE seems to have more problems, but still has never been enough of a problem to make me question using it in production.

[derekp7]

I think the third-party frameworks issue can be solved with LXC / Docker. If app x requires library y and supporting utility z, this can all be put into a container without having to update the OS's versions of y and z.

[TallGuyShort]

Although personally I've had more instances of running into an incompatibility with the older CentOS 5 kernel than with any of the libraries in the distribution - which LXC wouldn't be able to help with.