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Thread: Distro for corporate environments?

  1. #1
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    Question Distro for corporate environments?

    Hi n00b here.

    I have used Solaris, etc. in the past as a sysadmin/programmer in some large corporations in the 90s but have been away from *nixes in the past few years. With the recent downturn, I may have to look for another job soon. I already have a proper 4-year degree in Computers so I could pick up things pretty quickly.

    So I thought I would brush up on my skills - programming/sysadmin, etc - and I may have to install development environments as well as server software as necessary. What is the popular distribution (or Unix flavor) in the commercial market? What programming skills are more marketable these days? What other websites are useful for someone who is trying to return to the 'fold'?

  2. #2
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a huge player. CentOS is a free clone. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) is pretty big too.

  3. #3
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    Distro
    Ubuntu Development Release

    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    I think SuSE Enterprise is really good, not sure about Red Hat, but I've heard great things about SuSE Enterprise.

  4. #4
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    Quote Originally Posted by cardinals_fan View Post
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a huge player. CentOS is a free clone. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) is pretty big too.
    I second RHEL and SLED, although you may want to get familiar with the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES).

  5. #5
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    There are 2 major players in the corporate environment: Red Hat & Novell.

    Of those two, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is basically a server-only distro (even though they sponsor the desktop-friendly Fedora Project and provide some GUI-based packages). Conversely, Novell ships distros targeting both server and desktop - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) & SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) respectively. Both of Novell's corporate distros are just different, fortified & super-QA'ed, subsets of the openSUSE distro.

    As noted cardinals_fan noted, CentOS is a free clone of RHEL. Canonical's Ubuntu is an up-and-comer in the corporate space - and the advantage (or disadvantage) of Ubuntu is that the version for "enthusiasts" is the same as the "corporate" version. Some companies also use Debian as a server platform.

    The value of being certified on a particular platform is variable on where you live. In the US, Red Hat is the dominant corporate Linux. Europe is a more level playing field, although Germany still has some extra love for their homegrown (Suse). Not sure about elsewhere in the world. You should also know that:
    1. The Novell/Microsoft agreement seems to have spurred along additional momentum for Novell's offerings so far.
    2. As of this post...Red Hat still hasn't laid anyone off. It could be that they're simply delaying an announcement, but by all indications they appear to be in a position of strength despite the economic slowdown.

    As far as programming skills go, the "best" language to know still depends on what you're trying to get done. As far as scripting goes, Python & Ruby are the popular kids in school right now. Toolkits...the next version of Qt (4.5) will also have the LGPL as an available license - that should make Qt truly trendy as a cross-platform solution. Otherwise, C# is gaining traction although some in the F/OSS space seem to oppose it on the basis that it's from Bill's house.
    GIMP should really change it's name to GINP in the tradition of WINE & GNU.

    GIMP (GINP) Is Not Photoshop.

  6. #6
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    Thanks for your responses.

    I am in US so it looks like it is going to be a battle between CentOS and OpenSuse assuming that, from a learning/tinkering point of view, they are similar to their 'paid' versions.

    Re. programming languages, I was thinking about Java but maybe I should take a closer look at C#.

  7. #7
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    CentOS is more server-ish than OpenSuse.

    In reality though, most of Linux holds for most distros. Just like if you learn C#, learning Java is easy and vice versa.

  8. #8
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    CentOS is virtually the same as RHEL. openSUSE is to SuSE Enterprise Linux as Fedora is to Red Hat.

  9. #9
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    Quote Originally Posted by RS3York View Post
    As noted cardinals_fan noted, CentOS is a free clone of RHEL. Canonical's Ubuntu is an up-and-comer in the corporate space - and the advantage (or disadvantage) of Ubuntu is that the version for "enthusiasts" is the same as the "corporate" version. Some companies also use Debian as a server platform.
    I didn't know I was noted
    Quote Originally Posted by nautilusny View Post
    I am in US so it looks like it is going to be a battle between CentOS and OpenSuse assuming that, from a learning/tinkering point of view, they are similar to their 'paid' versions.
    Not a good analogy. openSUSE is to SLED what Fedora is to RHEL; a testbed for new features officially backed by the company. Very similar, but not the same. CentOS is an almost-identical clone of RHEL from a community of volunteers, and is not officially related to Red Hat.

  10. #10
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    Re: Distro for corporate environments?

    What happened to Solaris and HP-UX?

    mechanic

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