Download CentOS 5.3

CentOS is a Linux distribution that focuses on server systems. It is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux as it uses its source rpms. For more information, we refer you to this page. The developers released version 5.3 of CentOS a few days ago which is suitable for i386 and x86_64 systems. The corresponding announcement looks like this:

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS-5.3 for the i386 and x86_64 Architectures.

CentOS-5.3 is based on the upstream release EL 5.3.0, and includes packages from all variants including Server and Client. All upstream repositories have been combined into one, to make it easier for end users to work with. And the option to further enable external repositories at install time is now available in the installer.

This is just an announcement email, not the release notes. The Release Notes for CentOS-5.3 can be found on line and everyone is encouraged to look through them once. Also worth browsing through are the CentOS FAQs.

ArtWork update:
CentOS-5.3 brings in a completely new artwork stack. A big thanks to Alain Reguera Delgado, Ralph Angenendt, Marcus Moeller and everyone on the Artwork SIG for bringing us the best, most comprehensive artwork set yet. Also a big thanks to all the translation teams for their contributions to the installer artwork.

contrib repos are back:
Given the widespread requests for user contributed packages directly being hosted within the centos repositories, the contribs repository is now back with CentOS-5.3. There are no packages yet, but over the next few weeks we hope to have a policy and process in place that allows users to submit and manage packages in the contrib repo.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed, including the translation teams, the qa team, the CentOS Developers and all the users out there. I would also like to thank all the users for their patience and help! Enjoy this release, tell all your friends about it too.