Red Hat Enterprise Linux: LSB Certification Means Stability, Lower Cost

by Dietrich Schmitz

Are you looking for stability?

You need not look to Ubuntu LTS to find stability.  Sorry to bust the bubble of those who suffer from  delusions of grandeur, but the level of rhetoric really has gotten to be just a bit too much.  


No, I've lived on both sides of the deb/rpm fence using both Ubuntu and Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  Ubuntu is a commercial Distribution underwritten by Canonical Ltd.  Ubuntu depends on Debian, which is a community Distro.  Fedora on the other hand is the base for all software research and development which ultimately finds its way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

When it comes to real innovation, users can be assured that Fedora will include all of the most leading edge software available.

Standardization Breeds Stability, Reliability, Lower Cost

Unlike Ubuntu, when it comes to Linux Standard Base (LSB) compliant operating systems and applications, the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is certified.  This is very important to Enterprise IT which must rely on standard behaviors without unnecessary deviation, or, software fragmentation.

Software fragmentation is a major problem in the Distro community where Distro A's software may not work on Distro B because of some non-standard variation in the filesystem or software design and functionality.  Uniform software behaviors based on standards means that system administrators can anticipate and support software with the least amount of time and effort expended.  Conversely, software variation means not enough standardization and potential for increased support which translates into higher cost of operation.

Red Hat 10-Year Lifecycle Support

When it comes to using the Fedora community Distro, if stability becomes a concern, then Red Hat's 10-year Lifecycle support for their Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available.  Those interested in RHEL may obtain a free 30-day evaluation version of RHEL6 to determine if it fits their personal or business needs.  A simple registration process will allow you to receive from Red Hat a link to your software to download.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is Superior Technology

Red Hat is the right path to take given their long track record of use in real-world large-scale Enterprise business settings.  You don't get into the New York Stock Exchange unless you have stability and reliability going in your favor.

So, don't listen to all of the hype.  Sort it out.  Discern the true differences.  Red Hat Enterprise Linux represents superior Linux technology built on LSB standards providing truly stable lowered cost of operation.

-- Dietrich

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Where Will Your Linux Distro Be in Five Years?

by Dietrich Schmitz

No question in my mind.  There will be more fall-out similar to the likes of what happened to Fuduntu.  Call it a consolidation, if you will. (Image credit: aeromedicaleducation.org)

It gave me pause for thought to realize that the choice one makes for a Distro should be given very special consideration.

For personal use and, particularly, when it comes to the business world, there are some critical questions which need to be answered before making that choice.  I have come to realize that just a handful of things are important and that made Fedora 18 the obvious choice.  So what attributes should one be looking for in a Distro?

Leading Edge 'best of breed' Technology and true Innovation

Along with a six-month release schedule comes the newest technology available.  Some might argue that such is a cause for unstable operating conditions.  For example, Debian does not operate on a time-based release management schedule, which I have issues with. It is highly debatable as to whether their policy promotes stability or not.  While Ubuntu is also time-based at 6 months, it relies upon the Debian 'Test branch'.  Fedora on the other hand works closely with upstream providers.  Also, I argued the merits of Yum and have concluded that Fedora's implementation of Yum dependency resolver combined with the LSB-certified Red Hat Package Manager, rpm,  represent a superior technology.

Linux Standard Base certification

In The Linux Desktop Mess, I argued for a singular standard filesystem (Filesystem Hiearchy Standard) and package manager (Linux Standard Base).  With the proliferation of cookie cutter Distros comes the tendency for programmers to take shortcuts and hedonistic ways prevail.  The result is seen in a wide variation of implementations with differing filesystem directory structures and package managers.  Worse is the fact that how a given package manager is implemented on one Distro does not automatically confer its ability to work on another Distro using the same package manager.   This adds wide-ranging complexity and added cost in deployment.  Fedora is the source for all Red Hat Enterprise Linux cutting edge development and by default is fully LSB compliant.  Both issues are satisfied with Fedora.

Support

When it comes down to corporate environments, this is probably the most important consideration for IT Departments.  Having a service level agreement can be the difference between having downtime and smooth seamless uninterrupted operation.  Users of Fedora can automatically migrate to RHEL and expect that level of commercial grade support.  Fedora does an excellent job in both chat and forum technical support.

Stability and Longevity

As I mentioned, Fuduntu left me shocked.  It was a moment that brought me to the question, will my next Distro be around in five years?  When you have a business to run, this becomes magnified in importance and the crowd of competing Distros falls back to reveal only a small handful which are truly stable and with a large enough community to have the requisite longevity.  I ruled out Debian on the speedbump issue and knew YUM is superior, so that left SuSE and Fedora.  SuSE uses Zypper for its dependency resolver, but yum is in their repository and supported.

But, my memory is long and I haven't forgotten the Microsoft Inter-Op partnership Novell's Ron Hovsepian struck and since then SuSE Linux Gmbh has become a subsidiary of AttachMate and renewed their agreement with Microsoft in July 2011.  That has become the deciding factor for me.  That ongoing relationship is unacceptable.  Thus, Fedora is my choice.

It should be noted that Red Hat has billion dollar-plus annual revenues going on two years now and provide enterprise grade application software for the New York Stock Exchange and are ranked number two Linux kernel contributing vendor according to the Linux Foundation's Annual Linux Development Report for 2012.

So, think of Fedora as being a test bed, if you will, for all ongoing software R&D that finds its way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux.  While the technology is leading edge, you can trust that Red Hat's support and stability will ensure that technology undergoes continual refinement.

These are the things which you should be asking yourself.

Where will my Distro be in five years?  

The answer may cause you to make a switch, as I did, to Fedora 18.

-- Dietrich

Related articles

• Fedora Got Game: Leading Edge Technology, Stability and Standards
• YUM vs. APT: Which is Best?
• Cookie Cutter Distros Don't Cut It
• The Linux Desktop Mess

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