I tried a couple of times but prefer fedora over redhat on lab servers and desktops. Fedora is easier to upgrade between releases and you get features faster and it's just as stable. The only time I use enterprise oses in my lab is for things that are picky about the os they run on
this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Older software is the most noticeable thing. Enterprise does not mean it is better - just that it is supported for a long time and they do that by not changing much on them. They are more designed for servers rather than workstations and generally not a great experiences unless you are running hundreds or thousands of them in an enterprise situation.
Professional just means payed for. What you are paying for is support in managing the systems, not a great user experience.
For home desktops it is far nicer to be on newer software rather than things that came out 5 to 10 years ago.
Can I assume you're not actually running an enterprise distro?
I mean, me neither, yet, but:
- Both SUSE and Red Hat have had a minor release this year, with their software being less out of date than Debian
- I feel like enterprise distros seem to be very different in the areas where differences between distros actually matter: Package management (which can be fine-tuned a lot more with application streams, security updates, package modules, etc.) and complete, up-to-date documentation (which is the thing most people miss in Linux).
I was really looking for real world experience, not a re-hashing of unvalidated opinions that have been around for >10 years (when they might have actually been true).
their software being less out of date
It almost sounds like we need to review how and why and when RHEL bundles software to be released within their distro, and the difference between an old snapshot and a relatively new fork.
It looks like you have your mind made up and are looking for affirmation, not discussion. Next time, say that instead of being an ass to people trying to help you.
I think I was pretty clear with what I was asking in this thread:
"Is anyone here using an enterprise Linux distro?"
You also asked
I'm considering switching to RHEL, to get a "professional" Linux, since it's free if you register an account, but is it worth it?
Is the experience very different from Fedora?
Nobody cares when someone tries to preemptively qualify incoming advice. It's an open forum. Everyone will just ignore your criteria because you admittedly don't know much about this. If you gave us a reason that didn't vibe as "I think I know more than I do" I bet people would consider not chiming in.
What a normal person does is simple: just ignore the advice that they don't value.
Not anymore because all the reason I mentioned. Has the experience change in recent years? Not likely. It is the same software as in other distros - just years out of date. That has not changed as the goals of these projects have not changed. They might be on newer versions then 10 years ago but they are still way behind more frequently updated distros - or at least will be very shortly. That is fundamentally how these enterprise distros work. Their target audience is businesses needing support, not lots of end users.
The big attraction towards these distros are the support that enterprise people will pay for - which you do not get with the free version. If you don't mind older versions of things then it might be nice for you. If not then I would stay clear of them.
Yes, Debian.
I manage a number of RHEL/Rocky and Ubuntu machines for work. EL is fine as a server distro but it doesn't make a great desktop distro. The packages are old and I've found it to be missing a number of packages I use on a desktop system. For a desktop, Fedora or Ubuntu is a better fit.
I have some RHEL machines at work. They are used as VM hosts for windows VMs (CAD software). I set them up, but I also have a huge list of other apps and servers that I manage,develop and support, and so the person that wanted these mahines wanted professional services as an option if I am out or busy with other projects. Plus it allows us to offload liability for security if need be, whereas when I do it, there is anyone else to blame, legally speaking. ( Although so far we have not had a breach on my watch knocks on wood )
I just use fedora at home, I find the they are about the same and I personally wouldn't pay for the additional services. The package manager is different, but that's about it.
More than a decade ago I bought SUSE enterprise for a couple of years just to support the project. Never needed any assistance so I'm not sure about a different experience. BTW The box was nice 🤣
Personally using rocky Linux. Which is essentially free rhel. It moves slower then fedora.
So Technically No. Our proprietary CAD was only supported and certified to work on RHEL or SUSE. I wanted to test before commiting to a distro. So I went with OpenSUSE leap since it shares SUSE binaries and has same release and service cycle. It installed and functions well on OoenSUSE While not identical to SUSE, I can say all the complaints I saw online of things not working in Linux were working for me. They sort of have to on a paid distro with support, so it seems to carry to OpenSUSE with the same binaries
- nVidia hosts a repo specifically for SUSE and OpenSUSE ( probably RHEL too) it meany adding that nvdia url and updating in Yast2 GUI. Everything works, no tearing, no glitches, nVidia app for thermal settings or tweaking.
2)btrfs works. I saw lots of complaints of people saying btrfs filled their drive, etc. SUSE / OpenSUSE as jobs establishes to monitor number and age of snapshots and remove automatically as needed as well as cleaning tools. It all runs behind the scenes.
- patches, people complain they don't know if a CVE affects them, if they have applied a patch or not, what package etc. On SUSE/OoenSUSE you have several patch, patches, lp commands that show you what has been released, what level and whether your system has it installed, not required, critical etc. Keeping up with CVE and patches is easy.
I assume RHEL will also have these types of perks to make some aspects easier
RHEL will also have these types of [perquisites]
Yeah. Yum upgrade . The work that goes into a reliably safe, brain-dead, boring update process with a rollback and by-the-checksum validation of installed product is the most unsung part of the distro.
And people really should value the ability to answer
- are we safe from CVE-xxxx-yyyyy? (it's in the changelog and often an upgrade command like
yum update --cvewill settle it) - how do we know we installed all of that and it's valid? (
rpm -V some-RPM)
And 'how do we know' is an amazingly powerful question that's easy to answer on EL and hard as heck to answer on debs or anything with flatpak/snap/pyp/npm nonsense.
Try it out maybe? You're not buying a car... There's not much point going around and asking if you spend 20 mins trying it out and realise you don't want to use a 5 year old DE.
Basically expect the system will change only when you update to a new version, and that you'll need to use external PMs like flatpak or nix for all user packages if you plan on doing anything more advanced than browsing and office work.
Read their reply. This is someone who already made their mind up without even testing it.
I think it depends on your use case. For my gaming desktop I use Fedora to get the latest packages. For professional scenarios I've been using Almalinux the past couple of years. It started life as a RHEL clone, but since RHEL changed their code distribution rules I see them more parallel in the stream rather than down. It's completely free, but there are options to purchase support and live kernel patching if required.
If you want to go the Suse route, Opensuse Leap will give you the closest experience to Suse enterprise. I believe Suse actually offers conversion tools to convert Leap to the full enterprise OS. I don't have personal experience with it, but have considered it in the past and this is the information I recall.
i suspect that the biggest reason to use an enterprise distribution is the support since it helps shield you from the consequences of interoperability that naturally come out of the whole linux ecosystem of the right hand not knowing what the left had is doing.