Best distro for learning the basics of an enterprise OS

[Charles]

Worded the title really badly, but what I am looking for are opinions on what would be a good distro to learn the "basics" of linux. I know Ubuntu fairly well, but I want to get some experience with other distros.

I was thinking about messing around with Fedora, but I'm not sure what is being used on an enterprise/small business level. (RHEL?)

Thanks.

[VaKo]

CentOS is a clone of RHEL, and is basically RHEL sans support. For enterprise use you should also look at Solaris, FreeBSD and Windows though..

[Charles]

Thanks VaKo.

I'll probably install those in VMs and mess around with the basics.

[RogueSpear]

For better or worse, a huge amount of enterprises use RHEL or CentOS. I am personally just beginning to find out just how incredible FreeBSD is (and am kicking myself in the ass for wasting so many years on Windows).

Time is limited, but you really do need to diversify. At least have a basic knowledge Linux/BSD which probably equates to CentOS and FreeBSD. As the years go on I'm finding it more and more difficult to keep up on everything. It's getting to be like medicine where you need to specialize, yet everyone expects you to know everything.

[wh1t3 and n3rdy]

We predominantly use Solaris and windows

[Charles]

Thanks for the info. I think 99% of the machines at work are running Win NT/2000/2K3/XP. I think the only linux box is the NAS, but I think that's because all the "IT staff" know is windows. Heh.

[VaKo]

Not really a heh moment. Microsoft have spent years working on Enterprise level products that can create an environment which is highly manageable, easy to control, completely integrated and have terrabytes of documentation to back this all up with. Linux, and especially the FOSS end of the market doesn't have anything you can compare in scope and design to active directory.

[Charles]

Totally agreed. While Linux does have it's merits, it is no where close to where AD is as far as ease of management goes.

I think that they can use Samba to do LDAP (I think?) but it's no where near as sophisticated as Windows AD.

[3w`Sparky]

just learn unix

this will give you the skills you need for solaris and linux disto's alike except for the way they each handle package management differently but otherwise it's all much of a muchness

[VaKo]

Agreed, this is why I push FreeBSD, its near as damnit Unix, but not as different as Solaris.

[Charles]

Thanks guys! I think I shall need to install FreeBSD into a VM (after reading the manual ofc)

[Tarbizkit]

Not really a heh moment. Microsoft have spent years working on Enterprise level products that can create an environment which is highly manageable, easy to control, completely integrated and have terrabytes of documentation to back this all up with. Linux, and especially the FOSS end of the market doesn't have anything you can compare in scope and design to active directory.

hmmmm.... you might want to look into novell's product line. suse, oes, e-directory, and zenworks. these products are really good. I have been using edir since it was named nds and this was way before active directory was around.

We currently run both directories at my office, mainly due to the fact that even though i feel that some of novell's products are better than ms, none of us can escape the fact that we live in a ms world. With ms having so much of the market share in the enterprise, it tends to push software vendors to make ms only compatible software.

[VaKo]

I was never a fan of E-Directory compared to MS AD tbh, it always seemed very clunky when I used it.

[Charles]

I think I need to definitely read up on FreeBSD. I downloaded the install DVD and tried to install it in a VM and sat there dumbfounded as to how to work it. *headdesk*

[VaKo]

If you look at some of the early posts I made on this forum, that was pretty much my reaction. But honestly, spend some time with it and it will make sense.

[Charles]

I kinda figured as much. Thanks VaKo.

Maybe I'll have time to tinker with it after I finish my 4 month cert spree.

[George Walker]

Thanks for sharing valuable information

[Jokke]

RedHat Enterprise Linux, Suse Enterprise Linux, Debian, Solaris, AIX and HP-UX with those you get pretty far. Those are most commonly supported in support contracts and enterprise hardware.

[fsck]

I think I need to definitely read up on FreeBSD. I downloaded the install DVD and tried to install it in a VM and sat there dumbfounded as to how to work it. *headdesk*

If you plan on learning FreeBSD, I recommend you take a look at the FreeBSD Handbook. The handbook is an excellent resource for all things FreeBSD.