CentOS Linux provides a free and open source computing platform for its clients as part of the Linux CentOS project. It is an open source platform meaning that it is basically a community-supported enterprise operating system, and compatible with its upstream source Red Hat Enterprise Linux, from the CentOS Project. The newest version, CentOS 8 was released on September 24^th, 2019 and it has brought some new features and capabilities which we will analyze in this article.

What’s new in Centos 8?

There are notable differences between CentOS-8 and 7 in Kernel, package repository format, and lots of new features that EL-7 do not have.

The Cockpit is now available by default
CentOS 8 comes with a new version of the YUM version which is based on DNF. This new version is compatible with YUM v3 (CentOS 7)
RPM v4.14 is distributed in CentOS 8. RPM now validates the whole package contents before starting the installation
CentOS 8 contents are available through the two main repositories: BaseOS and Application Stream (AppStream)
It supports up to 4PB of physical memory
Wayland is the default display server instead of the Xorg server in CentOS 8
XFS now supports shared copy-on-write data extents
nftables replaces iptables as the default network filtering framework
Python 3.6 is the default Python version in CentOS 8
PHP 7.2 comes with CentOS 8
Nginx 1.14 is available in core repository in CentOS 8

How to install centOS 8 Desktop?
Requirements
A system with a minimum 8 GB of Hard disk and 2 GB of RAM.
Powerful internet connection.

Step 1: First, you will need to download CentOS 8 from their official websites.

Step 2: Start the system on which you want to install CentOS 8 and change the boot order as USDB or DVD from the BIOS settings.

Once the system boots up, you will get the following screen:

Step 3: Select “Install CentOS Linux 8.0” and hit Enter. You will be redirected to the following screen:

Select your desired language and click on the Continue button.

Step 4:. You should see the following screen; from here, you can set Keyboard, Installation Source, Software Selection, Time & Date, Kdump and Installation Destination. Click on the Installation Destination.

Step 5: A new screen is shown, Select Automatic and click on the Done button.

Choose hard drive to install CentOS 8 on

Step 6: Now, click on the Begin Installation button

Step 7: Click on the Root Password to set the root password. Provide your desired password and click on the “done” button.

Step 8: Click on the User Creation button, provide your desired username, password and click on the “done” button.

Step 9: Once the installation has been completed successfully, you see the following screen. Click on the Reboot button to restart the system and boot from the Hard disk.

Step 10: Once the system started, you should see the CentOS License information screen. Click on “License Information”, accept the License agreement and click on the “done” button.