CentOS Room for Improvement
Mohammad Wasif
IT infrastructure executive at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
CentOS should provide updates more regularly. Kernel parameters, sysctl config details, tuned profiles, process prioritization, optimized disk, and input scheduler choice are all points for performance optimization.
Regarding needed improvements, expanding hardware resources, adding more RAM, and switching to SSD storage would ensure hardware is able to match application demand.
View full review »
Naveenkumar Lakshman
Presales Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The documentation and support could be improved, along with compatibility with newer hardware as hardware continually evolves over time. Additionally, if CentOS could receive better marketing and promotion, it might gain more traction among vendors, software developers, educational institutions, and colleges.
There is always room for improvement in any product, irrespective of challenges or how good the product is. In the current scenario with cutting-edge technology, improving the product to benefit a larger community would be a positive step.
View full review »AK
Alex Kvasnytskyy
Technical Operations Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees
CentOS removed long-term support, and version releases every two to three years are not ideal for production environments because they necessitate frequent updates.
View full review »
Buyer's Guide
CentOS
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about CentOS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
KR
R Kirishikaran
Technical person at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Regarding how CentOS can be improved, I am primarily expecting stronger security features on the security side. CentOS RADIUS server handles sensitive authentication data, so improving security is the priority. Enforcing SE-Linux with custom policies tuned for FreeRADIUS and enabling automatic security updates would be helpful. I would also recommend improving CentOS minimal OS installation.
If CentOS could be made more lightweight and minimal during installation, that would be beneficial because memory usage and service conflicts exist in this OS. Improved logging and monitoring are also needed. Better insight would make it easier to diagnose issues, so integrating FreeRADIUS logs with the Elasticsearch stack, Grafana, or Graylog would be helpful. Enabling systemd-journald persistence and storage would also be beneficial.
CentOS, being Linux-based, is the best in security, but it needs more on the security side for CentOS RADIUS server. FreeRADIUS security improvements and security patches are needed. If possible, including a graphical user interface for future features would be most welcomed.
View full review »
Muhammad Faizan Shah
Staff Software Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sometimes it is quite difficult to find drivers when I have CentOS locally on my machine. For example, I have an old Lenovo laptop where I experience driver issues sometimes.
View full review »
reviewer2778354
Technical Lead InfraOps at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I cannot think of anything that CentOS could be improved on at the moment. Considering the fact that I have not had any issues with needed improvements such as documentation, community support, or compatibility with newer technologies in the past number of years I have been running these servers, there is nothing to report.
View full review »TP
Thiago Pallaro
Senior Support Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
I do not find anything that can be improved in CentOS. I am a huge fan of it, and there is hardly anything that Linux in general does not already provide. I think CentOS is the best and closest thing to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which I consider the golden standard for Enterprise Linux.
CentOS is perfect as it is.
View full review »reviewer2764785
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
I think CentOS should introduce more security patches to fix different vulnerabilities.
View full review »BW
Brandon Webb-Fezer
Technical escalations engineer team lead at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
I think CentOS can be improved, but it's not really a viable option anymore. It could be brought back, but that seems unnecessary now that Rocky Linux exists.
View full review »
Mahender Nirwan
Software developer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
One issue I recently faced, but I think it was due to my IT support guys, was that when the server storage gets full, the service crashes. It's very difficult to regain access and stability in that situation. That could be improved.
So, the stability might be improved. But I don't think it's a CentOS-level issue. The system administrators need to come up with a solution for that, but I don't think it's CentOS's fault. I haven't done any research [R&D] on this issue.
There's one thing for sure. We recently migrated from CentOS 7 to CentOS 9, and it was a bit difficult. For example, updating Windows is simple; you just download it, and it takes about 15-20 minutes. But that's not the case with migrating from CentOS 7 to 9.
We had to back up the entire server, launch a new server, and then restore the backup to the new server. We couldn't directly migrate. I think that was a bit of a problem. The setup and updates are not that new in CentOS.
View full review »
Arif-Kundi
CEO at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The product lacks a graphical user interface that can help users automate certain systems using the native features offered by CentOS. The aforementioned area can be considered for improvement in the product.
VC
Van Cotoco
Senior Manager, Systems Engineering at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
The solution must improve its security. It must provide security against hackers. The security features must always be updated.
View full review »
Sajjad Raza
Vice President | Services Group Leader at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
They could add a tool or a dashboard where we could properly monitor the machine's performance rather than using different commands. If a proper GUI-based tool was connected remotely or on the machine, it could be a great addition to CentOS.
View full review »VM
Vineeth Marar
Cloud solution architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The solution’s stability could be improved.
View full review »
SHUBHAM BHINGARDE
Project Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Currently, CentOS is not providing support, so you will not get new packages that are compatible with that operating system.
View full review »AQ
Ahmed Qasim
Senior System Admin at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
I don't think any improvements are needed in the solution since we can just use it to test Red Hat before deploying it in our IT environment. We can learn more about CentOS from Red Hat.
In the future, CentOS should provide a free or open-source version for its community, which can involve improving and testing it.
CentOS NetworkManager is an area of concern in the solution that needs improvement, and it is the same with other products from Red Hat. CentOS NetworkManager was better earlier compared to what it is nowadays. The implementation or configuration would be better if there was some new CentOS NetworkManager available.
Ibidapo Ibrahim
Head of IT Infrastructure at a non-tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I do not need any extra features. Nothing is missing from the solution.
We are aware that the licensing has shifted, and it's not a change we've liked.
View full review »
Ayman Allam
DevOps and Automation Lead | Technical Expert at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
The support could be a bit better. They should be more customer friendly. They could also be a bit faster.
View full review »
MohammedThousif Ansari
Technical Lead at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
I would like the integration to be more secure.
View full review »
Yilmaz Cagri Isbuga
Co-Owner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The security could be improved because the server system isn't very secure. I prefer to use Cloud Linux because of the CPU base, and they have CageFS technology. Cloud Linux isn't open-source.
I don't immediately update the solution because I want to wait for a stable version.
I would like them to provide features on GitHub or any docker core without any installation.
The problem with CentOS is that updates are made by the community's free sources, which can cause problems. You have to dig in deeply to realize what the problem is.
View full review »
Vijay Muddu
Manager server admin and security at a hospitality company with 11-50 employees
It would be ideal if Red Hat would continue the CentOS versions in an open-source format. They seem to be moving away from that. Now only paid versions are available.
View full review »
Erick-Guevara
Application Server Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The package manager could be improved. For example, for my background, I prefer Debian. For me, the Debian package managing it fits a better solution. Sometimes using RPE and packages is a little complicated trying to resolve some dependencies.
The GUI interface could always be better.
View full review »
Muhammad-Mwinchande
Software Developer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
If CentOS could add Office features then that would be beneficial. Additionally, the UI could improve.
RS
Rahul Sawhney
Group Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The solution could be a bit more user-friendly. In terms of commands, it's all CLI and there isn't any GUI which can make it challenging to use for some people.
View full review »
Kevin Honde
Data Solution Architect at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would like to see more frequent updates.
View full review »MM
Mpho Morake
Group CEO at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
The price could be better. They could add more drivers in terms of peripherals and other things. Add more drivers for the Linux specifications in the next release. Right now, they are just pushing to have more drivers for Windows instead of Linux.
Shaamil Ashraff
Architect - Database Administration at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I have had a tough time with the product's scalability, making it an area where improvements are required.
Phat Chau
Solution architect at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
There could be more integration features included in the product.
View full review »reviewer1889697
Chief Product Officer at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I'm not an expert on the solution. I cannot pinpoint specific issues.
The solution could be more scalable.
View full review »
Landry Mbala
Développeur applications at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
The tool has no official support.
View full review »
SulaimanMustapha
CRS at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
There is no notification before updates are applied to the solution, which occasionally means that new functionality isn't compatible with how the product is currently being used, and causes issues.
Victor Sibanda
Managing Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We would like Red Hat to keep supporting the solution but they have decided to get rid of it and there isn't much we can do about it.
View full review »DM
Davy MOUSSAVOU
Head of Department of operational and compliance at a consultancy with self employed
I'd like to see better integration with Open Stack, because it can be a bit of a struggle. The solution requires a lot of experience on Linux. I'd like to see the GUI become more user-friendly so that someone who doesn't have much experience can use it.
MM
Manish Mimani
Senior manager
It would be useful if reporting were included as part of the basic license.
View full review »
Taher Dungrawala
Delivery head at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
CentOS could improve by having troubleshooting logs.
View full review »reviewer1892454
Teaching and research assistant at a university with 201-500 employees
Continuous deployment is the only thing that can be improved.
I would like to see support in the next 10 years. They will discontinue support for some CentOS versions.
View full review »
Aakash Sharma
Senior Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
CentOS could be improved with more user-friendly monitoring.
View full review »
VivekSaini
IT Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
As an open-source solution, there isn't much technical support.
View full review »
HetulPatel
Senior data engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
When comparing the GUI of CentOS to Microsoft Windows or Mac, it could improve.
View full review »BB
Brian Bagnall
Senior Unix System Administrator at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
They're changing how they're working, and I really enjoy the easy updates. Now they're going to a streaming version, which I don't like. We want to control the updates manually. We have an application that we don't want to be updated without our knowledge.
If you want to do something special on install, you can. But when they have 68 questions about how you want to install, you answer each one of them. A very simple, default install would be nice.
View full review »reviewer930072
Senior Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The platform already provides pretty great services. I'm not sure if it is missing any features.
The stability could always be improved.
View full review »reviewer1053252
Technical Presales Consultant/ Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Unfortunately, Red Hat has changed the direction of the project.
The community is shocked that CentOS is no longer that stable branch, it's that development branch.
They have now started a new project that some vendors are involved with, which is called Rocky Linux.
Rocky Linux is a new Linux distribution that continues with what the community started with CentOS. The community now is making creating their own CentOS, because of Red Hat's decision to make this CentOS a test bench.
Most of the vendors in the market right now are making appliances, whether it be a firewall or a storage appliance, and most of them are using CentOS. Imagine the impact this will have on the vendors, on an international level, because they are relying on CentOS to be the most stable Linux distribution, and they chose the solution based on stability.
Red Hat made the decision of making CentOS a test bench, which means it will no longer be stable. Vendors will either push the new unstable update to customers, which is not something they would likely do or they would need to change to another Linux distribution.
It's a major decision for many companies to make. Because it is now a test bench many people are forced to change.
I was using CentOS because it was very stable, and now it's not. Will I use it? No.
The main reason people use CentOS was because of its stability. Now that the stability has been compromised, no one will use it, unless they are Red Hat developers. The people who are learning Red Hat will also like it. But for us, the community, who might have been relying on CentOS as being a very stable platform, we will discard it.
View full review »SK
Santosh Kurakula
Group DWH and BI Senior Manager at a wireless company with 201-500 employees
Integration with other platforms could be improved. There should also be more repositories. There are ways to get data from the repositories, but it could be enhanced.
View full review »reviewer1597158
Lead Solutions Architect - International Projects at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
Often, the solution doesn't scale as you expect.
I cannot recall if there are features that need improvement or if there's anything that should be added.
For me, it just has to perform and carry our application. I don't really care about how the user interface looks like as we don't use the user interface. We have an application running on it and that needs to be stable and that's the only thing. Therefore, we have no issues with the solution and don't feel it's missing anything.
The solution is stable, however, it could always be even more stable if possible.
CentOS recently announced some changes. I'm not sure what they will be, however, we look forward to seeing what they come out with.
View full review »VP
Vaibhav-Pathrikar
Independent Technical Consultant at a transportation company with 1-10 employees
The YUM install manager can be improved. It is below average as compared to the other install managers. This is the only major problem that I see with CentOS. They should reduce dependency on the YUM manager.
They can improve the help for features. It has so many features, but there is no help. They should provide more information and tutorials. Currently, because of the lack of knowledge or availability of resources, features are getting underutilized.
View full review »
Fabián Balseca Chávez
Security Presales Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
The interface could be improved.
I would like more features for the system manager.
View full review »
Cuneyt Gurses
Solution Architect, DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The main issue is the End of Support. For that reason, we will switch to another operating system.
reviewer1934385
Director of Electronic procurement department at a government with 51-200 employees
The price of CentOS could improve.
View full review »
Evans Choge
Network and Security Administrator at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The solution could include more integration of third-party solutions to check on the quality and vulnerabilities of the code.
View full review »TS
Thomas Stern
Team Leader Operations at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
This solution is no longer suited to our business following the change they have made to the release process. It is no longer an enterprise solution.
AD
Aymen Dridi
Systems and Virtualization Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
CentOS should extend the support of the solution. The solution is set to have no update support in 2023.
View full review »SK
Saad Khoudali
System Administrator at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
The solution is an open-source version of Red Hat without some of the features. The solution can be improved by including some of the Red Hat features for free.
View full review »DM
Daniel Matei
3D Artist with self employed
CentOS is very close to the end of life.
I’d like them to improve the licensing options in the future.
View full review »HT
Hoang Ta
System Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
It could be more secure.
View full review »reviewer1734405
Head Channel and Capacity at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
CentOS could be improved by being more secure. Of course, we use a firewall, but security is always a concern.
View full review »DB
Augusta Marbenny
MIS Specialist at a agriculture with 201-500 employees
We occasionally have issues with software installation. For example, if we want to install a gen framework, we will face some challenges.
View full review »reviewer1696335
Storage Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
CentOS is not easy.
I have searched the command center, but I cannot switch the accounts.
View full review »reviewer1581882
Sr Manager - Information Security & Researcher at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Going forward, it would be nice to see how the container orchestration technologies are incorporated into this particular operating system baseline. I know that such platforms as OpenShift exist, but containers would basically be the norm. I want to see how CentOS can take it at the ground level up.
The performance could stand improvement.
While the solution is already secure, this could be improved.
View full review »
Octavian Enache
Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Like every operating system, it could be more secure.
View full review »FK
Faruk Kutlu
Managing Partner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The solution could improve by making the management tools better for the DevOps teams. For example, WebEX and Webstacks.
View full review »
Muhammad Fahad
Manager Tech. & Support (Information Technology) at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The solution could improve by being more user-friendly.
View full review »reviewer1406874
Consultant at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Previous versions were unstable.
View full review »it_user1607289
Technical Support Specialist at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
I think the GUI could be merged and expansion simplified; both those things would be an improvement. Upgrading servers could be simplified because increasing the hard disk is quite complex.
View full review »MW
Mac Wang
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The solution might be discontinued but I hope that IBM will continue to develop it and improve on the functionally and features.
View full review »reviewer1362969
IT Specialist at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
I'd like to see additional security and more coding tools.
reviewer1473483
Senior System Engineer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
In the future, CentOS will no longer be compatible with Red Hat. I would prefer that it remains compatible because when it changes, we will no longer be using it.
What is missing from this product is a real file system like CFS. Having a modern file system is important and in CentOS 7, btrfs was supported. However, in version 8 it has been removed. I don't understand why and I think that it was a very bad move and a very customer-unfriendly thing to do.
View full review »D6B8
District Technology at a educational organization with 201-500 employees
You're getting what you expect (a linux distro). The wizard has gotten better through the years, so maybe they could build more options into the wizard. However, we have scripts that we deploy to overcome this.
View full review »PS
Panduka Samarasinghe Cissp
Security Pre-Sales Engineer - Southern Reigion at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I've found certain issues where I couldn't find any documentation to help me solve them. But I guess it's a case by case situation where popular problems have a lot of chatter about how to resolve, whereas certain problems don't have as much.
View full review »it_user538686
Director Corporate Systems Division at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
NVMe support. The manufacturer is developing a new line for that model which includes support for that type of hard drive.
View full review »it_user357567
Applications & Systems Administrator at a university with 501-1,000 employees
I would like it to be more intuitive. There could be better help facilities. However, I guess the GUI can be fairly intuitive.
View full review »it_user351633
Cloud Engineer | OpenStack Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
CentOS and RHEL for that matter are fairly difficult for beginners, as there are no popular and widely used Red Hat-based Desktop distros. And this has a slightly smaller user base and tutorials than other popular distros.
View full review »it_user541425
SCM administrator at a tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Out of the box, the NFS client is weak. It needs considerable kernel tuning before it runs NFS-bound applications efficiently. Perf "goes off a cliff" long before it should with the default settings.
The auto-mounter has been unstable, although it has been getting better recently.
View full review »it_user466755
Cloud & Monitoring System Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Reverse compatibility with old commands
WG
Wayne-Green
COO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
CentOS can be somewhat difficult for beginners, as it has a complex UI, especially for those not in the IT field. Adding more support could be beneficial, though Red Hat with IBM support is an alternative that may be costly. Also, modernizing CentOS could be a suggestion.
View full review »reviewer2121429
Security Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
They should improve the solution's hardware performance.
View full review »it_user1392807
Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The server system is a little bit tough to manage. It is not as easy as I would like it to be.
View full review »Buyer's Guide
CentOS
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about CentOS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free CentOS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2026
Product Categories
Operating Systems (OS) for BusinessPopular Comparisons
Rocky Linux
Ubuntu Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Windows Server
Oracle Linux
SUSE Linux Enterprise
openSUSE Leap
Fedora Linux
Windows 10
Kali Linux
Debian
Oracle Solaris
Google Chrome Enterprise
Alpine Linux
Flatcar Container Linux
Buyer's Guide
Download our free CentOS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More:
- Primary Use Case
- Benefits
- Valuable Features
- Room for Improvement
- Customer Service and Support
- Initial Setup
- ROI
- Pricing
- Other Advice
- Which would you choose - RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) or CentOS?
- Oracle Linux or RHEL; Which Would You Recommend?
- What change management solution do you recommend for users to adapt to Windows 10 updates?
- What operating system do you use in your business?
- When evaluating Enterprise Linux, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- What is the best Windows MSI installer?
- Which operative system would be a good alternative for DevOps?
- What features do you look for in an operating system?
- What operating system will be a good alternative for SLES?
- Why is Operating Systems (OS) for Business important for companies?
