I'm just getting into Linux after 18 years in the IT industry working on Novell and more recently all the usual Microsoft server products.

I decided to get re-certified after having my own business for 10 years and then finding it really hard to get a job back in regular employment.
Loads of real-world experience but nothing on paper and recruitment companies just don't seem to want to put me forward for jobs I can easily do.
I'm currently studying MCSE and will probably do a CCNP in a few months.

Which Linux distribution would you recommend to learn Linux for business desktop and server use and possible future certification?
My first thoughts were to go with Fedora because of it's Red Hat links and their certification path if I decide to take it.
Has Fedora moved away from Red Hat Enterprise too far to make it irrelevant?
Is there much difference between Red Hat / Debian / Ubuntu variants as far as study goes?

Something else I'd not really thought about until writing this is if Red Hat is actually available to download and use at home for studying or would I have to buy it?

Thanks,

Chris.

if you want fedora becuase of redhat links, why not jsut study redhat in the first place? nothing stopping you doing that, and if you want all update and such which you wouldn't get from a non-subscribed redhat install then centos is technically much closer than fedora.

Hey,

I heard about White Box Enterprise Linux a while back, and they seem to be 100% binarily compatible with RedHat Enterprise Linux. From what I know, they simply remove all logos, etc that would prevent them from distributing REL.

http://whiteboxlinux.org/index.html

-AM

well yes, that's what centos do, and they're generally regarded as the leading rhel rip off merchants!

If there's CentOS, why would there now be a Whitehat if they are doing the exact same thing? Why don't them two just team up and combine forces?

I don't know; I just know about them so I figured I'd mention them. Whether or not they're any good is for someone else to decide.

-AM

Thanks for the info.
I wasn't aware of these ripped off versions!

I suppose what I'm asking is will the command line etc be the same across different distributions and if so am I best learning the basics on something like Ubuntu with it's big support base then getting stuck into Red Hat Enterprise or similar when I'm ready for the server/networking side of things?

Chris.

well "ripped off" is a joke, CentOS is 100% legitimate, no need to worry there. it depends what parts of the system you're talking about. standard commands and applications run the same, but things like package management, lower level system configuration and such do vary wildly. in the main you have redhat / rpm based distro's like fedora, centos, rhel, suse and debian / dpkg based distributions like ubuntu, debian itself and [random bunch of pointless letters]buntu variants. so switching from one "camp" to the other might be a little more involved than you'd think.

Within buisness the safest option is to learn redhat / centos, but ultimately the better you are with your transferable skills the easier you'll be able to anticipate differences between them and adapt your expectations on the fly.

one more angle to consider is that as rhel is for business it's not a great starting point for a home desktop. things like graphics, gaming, media in general, are not as well supported out of the box, as it's simply not the intended uses. ubuntu is a great way to become a home enthusiast with all the bells and whistles.

Use CentOS (for Red Hat) or try Solaris. The bulk of the industry is either Solaris and Red Hat (this is from my Experience).

If you WANT the branding (hey some people do...nothing against them ) you can purchase an Academic version of Red Hat.

http://www.redhat.com/solutions/education/academic/

It's not free but it's cheap ($60 USD); it also gives you the chance to work with Red Hat first hand. It doesn't buy you support; but it does buy you the ability to download patches and software. To be honest; if you want "free Red Hat" use CentOS or White Box; it is EXACTLY the same except for the Red Hat logo.

Good Luck!

-C

As to CentOS, that distribution uses the same distribution as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but the distribution is re-branded CentOS.

A lot of commercial/industrial applications are tending to migrate towards Red Hat. We have a test system and development workstation running Ubuntu, while everything else we have is running Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat 7 and Red Hat 9. I have not found many differences between Ubuntu and Red Hat, but please bear in mind, my application is server, not desktop, based.

Employers are going to rely on your being able to figure out the strange cases more than your certification. The certification will say something about you, but it cannot tell an employer if you can think outside the box or pull off a last minute fix that got payroll or tax bills out the door on time. If the majority of employers that interest you are Red Hat shops, then it probably makes sense to get that kind of certification.

Just on the "ripped off" issue -

Red Hat releases the various "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" (RHEL) versions under the GPL. It makes the source code available at ftp.redhat.com

Under the GPL, anyone can use this source code.

However, Red Hat is protective of its trademarks. So while the source code for RHEL is freely available (and is even used by commercial rebranders such as Oracle in it's "Unbreakable Linux"), it must be made with different trademarks.

This primarily affects the GUI views - two examples: the words "Red Hat" and the "Shadowman logo" (the guy in the fedora), which folks like CentOS and Oracle leave out of their recompiliations of Red Hat's GPL code.

and also hence centos referring to "a prominent North American Linux distribution" and such like.