<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
<article>
<articleinfo>
<title>Welcome to CentOS =RELEASE=</title>
<corpauthor>
<ulink url="=URL=">
<inlinemediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata
fileref="Images/logo-centos.png" format="PNG" />
</imageobject>
</inlinemediaobject>
</ulink>
</corpauthor>
<copyright>
<year>=COPYRIGHT_YEAR_LAST=</year>
<holder>The CentOS Project</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
<para>
CentOS =RELEASE= comes with no guarantees or warranties of
any sorts, either written or implied. The Distribution is
released as <ulink
url="/usr/share/doc/centos-release-=MAJOR_RELEASE=/GPL">GPL</ulink>
work. Individual packages in the distribution come with
their own licences.
</para>
</legalnotice>
</articleinfo>
<sect1>
<title>What is CentOS?</title>
<para>
<ulink url="=URL=">CentOS</ulink> is an Enterprise-class Linux
Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the
public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor.
CentOS conforms fully with the upstream vendors redistribution
policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible. (CentOS mainly
changes packages to remove upstream vendor branding and
artwork.)
</para>
<para>
CentOS is developed by a small but growing team of core
developers. In turn the core developers are supported by an
active user community including system administrators, network
administrators, enterprise users, managers, core Linux
contributors and Linux enthusiasts from around the world.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Advantages</title>
<para>
CentOS has numerous advantages including: an active and
growing user community, quickly rebuilt, tested, and QA'ed
errata packages, an extensive <ulink
url="=URL=modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=15">mirror
network</ulink>, developers who are contactable and responsive
reliable Enterprise Linux class distribution, multiple free
support avenues.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Support</title>
<para>
The following free support avenues are available:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="=URL=">The CentOS Website</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="=URL_WIKI=">The CentOS Wiki</ulink>
(includes a dynamic <ulink
url="=URL_WIKI=FAQ">FAQ</ulink>)
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink
url="=URL=modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=8">The
CentOS IRC Chat</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="=URL_LISTS=">The CentOS Mailing
List</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="=URL_FORUMS=">The CentOS Forums</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
</article>