I'm trying to test out CentOS 7 for our linux environment. It would be nice to have a modern kernel, but I'm getting hung up on something that should be extremely simple. After install, I can't seem to do ANYTHING without first creating a user. I want to use NIS. Unfortunately there's no option at install to do that. I don't want to create a local user. I usually just login as root, install our scripts that get everything on the NIS/NFS server and there are no local accounts. I can find no way to login as root without creating a local user. Am I missing something?

Why can't you log in as root? It works for me. Are you trying at the console? SSH may disallow remote root login by default.

After installing, I get sent to a page that only allows me to create a user. I can do nothing else. It's bizzare.

that is normal
you NEED a non root account
A lot of software is ran in the user space and not the kernel space

The rhel/cent Gnome gui DOSE NOT LIKE THAT

if you want to login as root
do a TEXT only insall and do NOT install xorg or a gui

Or click "Other" and enter root, or press ctrl+alt+f2

You do not NEED a non-root account. I also use centralized account management and install systems with just a root user then put them on LDAP post-install. (Sadly I have not yet done RHEL/CentOS 7 enough to be able to answer this question from memory)

offscreen Next button?

They don't give an "Other" option on CentOS 7 for the initial login.

No Next button. I ended up being forced to create a user. CentOS7 is a weird one.

Ok, I see what you mean. I hadn't installed a GUI before.

I have a "Not listed?" button.

"Not listed" is only an option AFTER you create a local user.
This is awful! I can't get it to talk to my NIS server at all for login from the GUI. It works fine through SSH, but this interface is worthless.