When it comes to clothes, I’m a normal guy. I just want to walk into a store, grab something that fits, buy it (What, try it on? Are you kidding!?), and head home. Well, that’s what I want to do. I’ve learned over the years that just because something should fit doesn’t mean that it will fit. It’s the same with Linux servers. Sure, they’re all built on the same code base and can run the same applications, but one may fit you perfectly while another may make you look like a clown.
Well, let’s start with that basic question you should bring to any computing decision: “What is it that you really want to do?”
Let’s say you have a company with several hundred to several tens of thousands of users. What do you want? This one is actually a pretty easy call. Your first choice should be Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Red Hat has big business support down to a fine art, and it’s easy to find certified technicians, administrators, and engineers who know their way around RHEL. It’s also supported on a wide variety of hardware. Whether you’re running x86 servers on racks, blade servers, IBM POWER systems, or mainframes, there’s a RHEL for you. In short, Red Hat is the gold standard of business Linux.
Is RHEL is too expensive for your taste? Well, you get what you pay for, but there are two other worthy business Linux distributions that deserve corporate attention. These are Oracle Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).