Other linux versions vs. Red Hat...how compatible are they?

Post Reply New Topic

Trying to figure out what distro to put on the system. So far, I have Ubuntu, Knoppix, and possibly Red hat.

Thing is, as much fun as I could be having with an off-the-wall version, I really need to build up some linux skills to get a job. Since (apparently) about 70% of the commercial systems out there run Red Hat, will I get a sufficient grounding in linux using another version?

I could download Red hat (thanks, Orwell, for putting some information in here as to how it works... if it's not as much of a PITA to download as it was in '04.

Mainly, what I need to do is to be able to get through the RHSE, or SA, or whatever the 'cert of the week' is. I've read some of what they ask for, the testing sounds like a nightmare (about 5-7 hours, over at least 3 different categories, including troubleshooting). May just go for L+...

So for those of you who have run more than one version of these, how close in functionality are they?

I believe taking the Red Hat certification tests costs a lot of money, and there may be expensive classes involved as well.

Anyways, the community distribution Fedora is what Red Hat Enterprise Linux is based on, so if you learn the ins and outs of Fedora now, Red Hat two years from now will look awfully familiar. If you want to run actual Red Hat (but not pay for it) CentOS is the exact same thing.

As for comparisons to other distros, most of the differences lie in the package management systems. Just using Fedora should give you a decent idea of what to expect from Red Hat, it's the closest thing to it and probably one of the easiest anyways.

Thanks. I'll go look for Centos, if I can't get Red Hat to download...

...expected the 'tons o' cash' problem. It's a racket, from Cisco to MS, to Red Hat, etc.

Well, CentOS is Red Hat. It's literally the exact same code recompiled from source. The only difference in the system itself is I think the logos, the reason companies pay for Red Hat is because by doing so they get commercial support for it.

Red Hat seems to have a run-level system that's more defined than others. All have run-level 0 as being shut-down, run-level 1 as 1-user mode. and run level 6 as reboot, but Red Hat has defined 2 (no XWindows, no network), 3(no XWindows with network), and 5(XWindows and network) whereas other distros have not, and the usual mode for Debian, for instance, is Run Level 2. Startup scripts are also different depending on the distro - how the system starts up. Most use a Sys-V startup except for Slackware, notably, that uses a BSD type of startup.

Red Hat uses the Red Hat package manager, Debian has dpkg and apt... Ubuntu is a Debian.

Otherwise, there is not much difference. If your user account is set to use the bash shell then you use bash commands that should be the same.

hmm...it's a thought. One of the other folks here had an 'intro to Debian' URL that was rather helpful.

Lookin' good so far...hope this is helping other people as well.