CentOS is short for Community Enterprise OS. This is one of the leading Linux distributions for servers and it is recognized as one of the most stable and safe Operating Systems out there. CentOS is open-source software, which means that you are able to customize it in whatever way you see fit, adding and removing packages or changing the program code of all of them. It is also free to distribute and use, so you won't have to pay any kind of license fees, which means that the total price that you'll need to pay for a server making use of CentOS will be lower than the price for a server running another OS. What makes CentOS stand out among various other Linux releases is its huge developer society, which will help you get the answer to any kind of question or problem you may have. What's more, each version that is released officially is supported for ten years, which is longer than with any other operating system. What this means is routine safety and stability updates that provides a reliable software setting for your web apps in the long run.