CentOS is an abbreviation for Community Enterprise OS. This is one of the best Linux releases for servers and it is recognized as one of the most stable and protected Operating Systems available. CentOS is open-source software, which means that you can customize it in any way you see fit, adding and removing packages or modifying the code of all of them. It is also free to distribute and use, so you won't need to pay any license fees, meaning that the overall price that you will have to pay for a server running CentOS will be more affordable as compared to the price for a server running an alternative OS. What makes CentOS stand out among other Linux releases is its huge developer society, that will help you find the answer to any kind of question or problem you might have. Furthermore, each version that is released officially is supported for 10 years, which is longer than with any other operating system. This means frequent security and stability updates which will provide a great software environment for your web applications in the long run.