Fedora vs RedHat

[Rick Stevens]

kevin kempter wrote:
> 
> On Oct 30, 2008, at 1:05 PM, Rick Stevens wrote:
> 
>> kevin kempter wrote:
>>> Hi All;
>>> What's the real differences between Fedora and say RHEL Desktop ?
>>> Specifically I'm considering buying one of the following for my new 
>>> dual core laptop w 12G of memory:
>>> Workstation with Standard Subscription
>>> or
>>> Workstation and Multi-OS with Basic Subscription
>>
>> Fedora is the "beta test, bleeding edge" test version.  If it works
>> well and is stable in Fedora, it eventually becomes RHEL.  For example,
>> RHEL5.x is based on Fedora 6.  New Fedora versions come out just about
>> every 6 months or so.
>>
>> I suspect that RHEL6.x will be based on Fedora 10 or 11, once all the
>> KDE/Gnome/kernel things calm down and stabilize.
>>
>> If you want stability, then go with RHEL or CentOS (built from RHEL
>> sources, but rebadged).  If you can stand to lose blood and get
>> frustrated at times, then you can go with Fedora.  Just remember that
>> there are no guarantees that your stuff will work in Fedora...it's a
>> test case.
> 
> Sounds Like RH workstation is for me. A few more questions.
> 
> 1) What's the upgrade path between RH versions (i.e. can I 'Upgrade' 
> from RH5 to RH6 or do I need to do a fresh install) ?

Upgrades are always risky.  They've gotten better, but they can still
be problematic.  No matter which way you go (upgrade or fresh install),
BACK UP YOUR STUFF!

> 2) Can I add server components to a RH workstation install without 
> restriction ?

As long as you're "subscribed" to the up2date channels on RHEL, you can
add any component in that channel.

In some respects, CentOS is a good choice.  It's built from the same
source code as RHEL, but it's free and uses yum to update (like Fedora
does).  The primary downsides are you don't get Red Hat support and when
Red Hat makes an update, there's a little delay before CentOS has it.
It does get there--perhaps a week later, but it gets there.
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- Rick Stevens, Systems Engineer                      ricks at nerd.com -
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