Having Trouble Deciding Linux Distro For My Dad For my dads office server

Well, my dad's office needs to upgrade it's primary server that's currently running Redhat 7.2, and I need recommend him a distro, but I'm stumped between Fedora and SUSE, wut do u guys think? If you want to recommend other distros, please tell me, and state the reason.Thanks!xboxrulz

I would stay with fedora, primary it's a legacy of redhat, and people would be already familiar with it, because it's basicly the same system they had before...

+1 for Fedora. I suppose your father's office people are not experienced administrators, else you would not ask this kind of question.So, they are satisfied with Redhat, I would also suggest stay with redhat. If you change to another distro, you will see people ignoring the advantages in the other distro, and keep crying for features they liked in RedHat.You may like a distro or not, but once people learned RedHat, don't force them to learn a new one.

Well, I must ask, what all is this server being used for?

I would recommend fedora. I tried to install fedora core 1 and it screwed the MBR but the bug was resolved in the latest versions. Fedora is the continuation of redhat. And it's geared to desktop users, so I think it's better to have Redhat enterprise edition for a server. But fedora will do.

Well, it is a: file, print, web server, email and other use server. Also, he has a Windoze server running a database software.xboxrulz

Well, I haven't had experience with Fedora, but I have with older Red Hat, and I myself wouldn't use Red Hat, or Fedora. My recommendation would be Debian.

too many CDs needed!xboxrulz

Um...I only used one CD, and the image was only 110-180M or so...This is what we call a network install...

Any reason why your switching distros? Any reason why Redhat 7 is no longer effective? I could understand a move to new hardware and lack of drivers for older distros. If you are going to move, have you even considered switching to FreeBSD or OpenBSD? Actually I wouldn't recommend OpenBSD unless your a security freak. But FreeBSD is worth a look and it has some really nice features. One being that once it is installed and has a connection to the internet, every part of the system can be updated as new versions come out automatically without having to purchase the next CD set (which you can DL an ISO if you really want or my favorite method, ever major release (ie 3, 4, 5, soon to be 6) get the Sams FreeBSD unleashed book that has a copy of the core OS on CD rom. Then just download the latest ports collection and run cvsup and get the latest kernal release. Chances are, all the software he is using for print, file, and web sharing will run the exact same way under FreeBSD since chances are they are the same programs. If not, FreeBSD has a Linux emulation layer and I've never had any problems running Linux applications in FreeBSD. Frankly I find FreeBSD boxes to much easier to adminster and keep up to date since FreeBSD will do most of the work for you. Being able to go into ports/postgresql7/ then type make && make install and come back a few minutes later and have PostgreSQL installed and ready to go is really, really handy.

na, BSD? Microkernels? na, gonna keep it simple w/ Linux. Even I run my machines using Linux (desktop/laptop).Plus, FreeBSD is too hard to maintain, plus most of the Linux compatible software must be ported.I was thinking of FreeBSD, but stepped out of it since some of my Linux commands won't work anyways.Why switch versions? It's because most of the software needed uses 2.6.x kernels.xboxrulz

Um....BSD uses a Monolithic kernel...is easier to maitain, and commands??? Commands have all been the same in my experience. Of course, "rpm"isn't going to work. BSD has actually been much nicer to me than Linux. And remember, isn't this for your dad's office, and not for you? So what would you need to know about the commands anyways?

I also maintain the servers whenever I'm in Hong Kong, so I do need to know the ins and outs of the server .So, I do need to know how FreeBSD works, and I didn't get any good experiences from it.xboxrulz

If you have a fast internet connection , you can easily upgrade RH 7.3 to RH 8.0 and 9.0 via Yum and thenb upgrade every thing to Fedora. jut by button clicks. I am not sure how safe it is but i read it some where. That way u wont be configuring alot of stuff. Other option would be a clean Install of Fedora or SuSe. Check out http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ for further study. I would recomend Fedora as it is similar to Red Hat and as a Server SuSe will not be any diffent ..but is different in configurations etc. (teeny bit)

Ya, I would take that suggestion hatim, but my dad is buying a completely new server, so YUM can't help me much.xboxrulz