Tbh I do not know the ins and outs of rhel based distros, so these have caught my interest. I’ve tries live usb of both and I really did like the feel of alma. Rocky I thought felt like every other GNOME system… But I clearly dont really know much about these sort of distros and their capabilities. Are these considered enterprise grade? I have no clue. Would love to hear your thoughts on alma and Rocky and what makes them different that other distros. Thanks
What about just running the good and stable Debian and ignore anything else that might be half proprietary or turn to be abandonware sometime in the future. Most arguments against using Debian are just lies and lack of knowledge, if you want real stability and long term support go with Debian. Also, most likely 99.99% of the people that used CentOS can run everything they need on Debian with zero issues.
But oh well this CentOS / RedHat mess just proved what I know for a long time: people deserve what the had. Why you may ask? Because right on the that mess a large percentage of people migrated from CentOS to Ubuntu Server replacing one problem with another. When are people going to learn NOT TO use questionable open-source?
I was running debian bookworm but was having issues with random Freezing And loss of touchpad and keyboard and also was having issues with my WiFi firmware or drivers idk. I mean I liked debian, but I couldn’t fix the problems so I aborted
Interesting… I’ve been using it mostly on HP laptops and everything has been working out of the box perfectly since ever. Even the custom keys and stuff.
Man my actual technical expertise is sorta limited, so it could have been user error too. I try to follow guides or tutorials, other times if it seems simple enough, I wing it lol
I don’t see much point to enterprise distros unless you have a specific reason to use one, i.e. specific business or server applications. So unless you need it for that, you’re better off with a desktop Linux - Fedora if you want to stick with rhel’s sphere, Debian if you want super stable.
I guess that somehow RHEL has been regarded by the industry higher-ups as the golden standard, so people just want to somewhat adhere to that in fear of missing out.
I can see that, but if that’s what they’re afraid of, then unless they need enterprise, Fedora is an empirically better choice. It’s more up to date, and it’s where RHEL updates come from (well, kinda).
If you’re afraid of missing out on new fun stuff, any enterprise OS will be a bad fit for your use case. Here’s the breakdown as I see it; this is me, YMMV:
- If stability is vital, use Debian
- If stability is more important than bleeding edge but still important, use Fedora or OpenSuse Tumbleweed.
- If you want to get to know your system better and gain a better understanding of how Linux works, use Arch, but be ready to fix stuff if you break it
- If, for some reason, you have a lot of time on your hands and want absolute control over your system, use LFS.
- If you need enterprise, use Alma or Rocky
I’ll cheerfully recommend other distros for more niche needs; I don’t have anything against other distros (except maybe Arch derivatives that seem more like a GUI installer, a software set, and some user scripts…), but those are all my go-to recommendations.
You’re forgetting OpenSUSE Leap for your first point, as well as Gentoo for your third point. 😉
I think the corporate world won’t necessary be looking for new fun stuff tech wise. They’ll just be looking for what the next door store is using. The fact that there are sought-after RHEL certifications kinda proves this.
Yes, I’m with you. People should just choose whatever they want. The corporate is a whole different beast.
I wasn’t forgetting either, I just don’t generally recommend either of those distros.
I don’t recommend OpenSuse Leap because I honestly can’t, for the life of me, see a use case for it. Debian is better for stability, Fedora is more up to date and still pretty solid. Tumbleweed represents another step into cutting edge land with its rolling release model, and I like it for that, and Yast is great and all, but Leap has outlived its purpose. It also seems like Suse agrees with me since last I heard, Leap was going to be discontinued.
I don’t generally recommend Gentoo because it’s a weird middle ground between Arch and LFS, and I’m not sure what it’s for anymore. Don’t get me wrong - I’ve done the Gentoo thing, and it really is excellent… but these days, it seems weird to me to want to go that far and not take the last couple steps to just build from scratch. Unless you’re in it for portage, which I can totally understand. Portage is awesome.
Great answer! I’ve only ever really delved into the debian and Ubuntu universes. I tinkered around with some arch, fedora, opensuse, etc. But since I started out on mint, its what I’m use to and comfortable with. BUT I need to venture out of my bubble I think… Would live a firmer grasp on other linux distros
Well, if you’re going to step out of your comfort zone, then I suggest one of two paths, depending on the sort of person you are:
- If you’re a wade in slowly and learn to swim as you go sort, then Fedora or OpenSuse Tumbleweed would be your next logical choice. They’re not overly difficult, but they also don’t exactly have training wheels. They both have different, but still fairly friendly, installers, and they both have their own toolsets and ways of doing things. I prefer Fedora and the Gnome desktop.
- If you’d rather jump into the deep end, then Arch might be interesting for you. Arch comes with some warnings though. You need to be willing to read man pages, search the wiki, and do a forum search before asking Arch users for help. They’re a great bunch, really, but they get salty if you haven’t really tried to solve issues on your own. Also, archinstaller makes setting up your system a lot easier than it used to be, but it might be worth it to set things up “The Arch Way” the first time. You’ll learn a lot.
Or, if you’re a complete crazy-pants like I was when I first started getting into FOSS operating systems, you’ll set up a FreeBSD desktop. Don’t… don’t be like me.
Another great answer. You are super knowledgeable and helpful. I’ve experimented with everything but am only comfortable with debian/Ubuntu based. Fedora was fairly easy, but still tricky to pick up on some things, didn’t give it a longer chance.
Also same for opensuse tumbleweed, I liked it and I was getting around OK, but I felt it was maybe fragile or their security(?) Settings are too tight because it seemed like I kept breaking crap on accident lol. Would definitely be willing to give it another shot.
Now Arch… This ones so different. I used manjaro when it first released and I liked it and surprisingly picked up on using it kinda quick, but again, I eventually accidentally broke it and couldn’t figure out how to fix it due to limited knowledge. But arch distros seem to differ so vastly; its sort of an overwhelming world. Now just pure arch, yea I dont think I could figure that one out, unless its a little more user friendly these days… So thats about that then pretty much. All the main distros in my nutshell, not including forks or spinoffs or flavors or whatever… Yet alone DEs lol. I get bored easily with just all the same out of box distros so I tend to explore but yet there’s so much I dont know about what actually does into a distro and desktop and everything else
I dont know about what actually does into a distro and desktop and everything else
Well, if you want to learn, check out the Archwiki. Arch has amazing documentation. Just reading through the installation instructions can teach you a lot:
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Thanks, thats pretty much what I was thinking. Trying to explore other areas of linux lol
I use Alma Linux on one of my production servers. It’s very stable. Never used Rocky Linux, but I would guess it’s also similar i.e enterprise grade.
They were both created to replace CentOS, a free version of RHEL that Red Hat killed.
I’m not familiar with that world of linux, what sets rocky and alma aside from the rest of the distros
They are both supposed to be versions of a “free RHEL”. You’ll mostly find them used in the enterprise space where the big players are RHEL, OpenSuse Leap, Ubuntu, Oracle Linux etc.
Gotcha, I knew they were more enterprise oriented but wondering if there’s any benefit of using an enterprise oriented distro just as an individual lol its foreign to me
Only benefit you’ll get is rock solid stable support at the cost of new kernel and desktop features trickling in very slowly (This is how everything in enterprise in general moves).
I would recommend using a distro geared towards desktop use such as Fedora.
Thank you, I never quite knew the differences between enterprise oriented distros and just regular workstation or personal use distros
