Rhel - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Is it any good?

[.:Brian:. 0]

Well I have the opportunity to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on my computer if I so choose (laptop computer for everyday use). And I was wondering if Red Hat Enterprise linux was a good option to choose? (I was thinkin of dual booting it with vista).Otherwise I was going to go with ubuntu (which I have used before and like), so I am wondering if anybody has any experience with RHEL at all?

[ethergeek 0]

Well I have the opportunity to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on my computer if I so choose (laptop computer for everyday use). And I was wondering if Red Hat Enterprise linux was a good option to choose? (I was thinkin of dual booting it with vista).
Otherwise I was going to go with ubuntu (which I have used before and like), so I am wondering if anybody has any experience with RHEL at all?

I'd go with Ubuntu. RHEL is designed around the demands of businesses running mission critical servers, since the non-security updates are few and far between, and the platform has paid support. For a personal machine, Ubuntu will offer much easier access to the latest applications, as well as newer drivers for things like video cards, sound cards, usb peripherals, etc.

[yordan 10]

OK, you'r right when you want to install a dual-boot Windows/Linux, simply for compatibility with old-fashioned programs.And I think that RHEL is a good choice, especially if you are currently working with other people using this version.The only detail I would like you to pay special attention, is the Vista dual boot thing.I know that RHEL4 works in dual-boot mode with all Windows up to Windowx 2000 and Windows XP.I'm afraid the boot.ini is somehow different with Windows Vista, so maybe some older versions of Linux are not able to correctly handle dual-boot with vista.Maybe this post is an opportunity to precisely ask the question to some skilled people : "did you already install RedHatEnterprise 4 on a Vista system ? Did the dual-boot work correctly ?"If several people answer "I was not successful", maybe you should consider going back to Win2k before installing Linux.RegardsYordan

[dserban 0]

Free software for setting up and configuring Vista boot entries:
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

Can't vouch for it though, I'm not a Vista user.

Edited September 18, 2007 by dserban (see edit history)

[ethergeek 0]

Why don't you just use grub and chainload the vista boot loader from there? It seems alot easier given how well documented the grub configuration is.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

True and GRUB in itself was built to load all operating systems using it's chainload system.xboxrulz

[Sten 0]

fedora 7.lol, dual boot vista and fedora 7, although fedora is based on red hat, i still think its heaps better.some people say that ever since fedora started, red hat went down hill and people rathered fedora.

[ethergeek 0]

RedHat didn't go downhill...they still make (and support, key word there) a very stable linux distribution. RHEL's primary focus right now is supporting enterprises who want to run linux instead of windows and have server machines that are certified to meet certain requirements like LSB and SELINUX. Even with the outrageous support contracts running into the many thousands of dollars offered by redhat, the TCO is STILL lower than running windows.Fedora isn't really the "free version" or RHEL...if you want something really similar to RHEL without the huge cost, check out CentOS.

[.:Brian:. 0]

Thanks for the link for the boot thing, i'll look into that.As for dual booting, I usually haven't had too much trouble with that as I usually back up the windows boot loader onto a file, install linux, backup the linux bootloader to a file(grub or whatever I happen to chose), then restore the windows bootloader. Then take the file for the linux bootloader and put it on my hard drive in the root directory for windows, and add an entry to my boot.ini file for it. And that worked for xp, so i'll have to see if it works for vista...It sounds like there is some question as to what I should use, what I can say is that I have access to install it (because I am at a university which has a site license of some sort of it where they allow students to install it for free and be supported while we are at the university, after which I believe whatever support type stuff will expire). Although so far, I have been using vista and been having no problems at all getting a lot of my favorite programs to run, because so many of the linux programs are being ported over to windows these days... So i may just end up sticking with vista.What about the hardware support for RHEL? Is it as good as ubuntu's support for hardware? Or am I going to run into lots of issues having to figure out how to get all my hardware to work?