Linux version Recommendation

Currently looking into learning Linux after starting on up the Cisco pyramid. Can someone offer a good recommendation to what version of Linux to use to start with? Any and all comments will be much appreciated. Thanks!

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sidsanders

my view: www.centos.org - The Community ENTerprise Operating System

tracks redhat enterprise kernels/distros. more likely to run into centos like os (read ent variant) in a prod env then fedora/opensuse/ubuntu/etc.

Chris:/*

CentOS, Fedora or Red Hat (if you can get it). CentOS and Red Hat dominate the Enterprise market. A smaller chunk use OpenSUSE and very little use anything else.

AlanJames

No ones has said Ubuntu? :P

Chris:/*

Not for the enterprise Ubuntu is a SOHO Linux.

sidsanders

AlanJames wrote: »

No ones has said Ubuntu? :P

i did!! suse el has evals you should be able to get as well. thats another 1 i have seen... more redhat then novell for sure.

Forsaken_GA

Chris:/* wrote: »

CentOS, Fedora or Red Hat (if you can get it). CentOS and Red Hat dominate the Enterprise market. A smaller chunk use OpenSUSE and very little use anything else.

Eh, I think you're perceptions are a little skewed if you think Debian isn't a player in the Enterprise market. They don't really do any marketing, but they've still got a strong presence.

And Ubuntu does have a server offering which is growing in popularity. The Cloud Enterprise offering in particular seems to be growing, as it uses the same API as EC2, so you can develop for both environments.

Someone looking to learn Linux should learn a Red Hat style distribution and a Debian style. This will cover the majority of the boxes you'll run into in an enterprise. I'd also recommend learning FreeBSD

UnixGuy

I don't think it should really matter to you now..pick up one distro and learn the administration side of it very well..then you can easily manage other distors as the concept are the same.

I assume you want a distro for Linux+, it doesn't really matter. I say RedHat, SuSSE, Ubuntu(easiest to setup), Fedor, CentOS....

Met44

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Someone looking to learn Linux should learn a Red Hat style distribution and a Debian style.

I agree. Start with one, doesn't matter which. When you're ready to try the other distro, look for "switching from X to Y" guides, such as this:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwitchingToUbuntu/FromLinux

varelg

Chris:/* wrote: »

Not for the enterprise Ubuntu is a SOHO Linux.

How can that NOT be turned into a server?

Everlife

Check out the Linux From Scratch project and compile your own distribution. I am using it to strengthen my limited skills in Linux and have found it to be very informative and (most importantly) enjoyable.

Chris:/*

varelg wrote: »

How can that NOT be turned into a server?

I said nothing about it not being turned into server, where are you getting that from?

My statement was from Never seeing it used in a large scale enterprise deployment. Nor has there been any need for it compared to other Linux versions like Red Hat and SUSE.

You can use it if you want for an Enterprise deployment if you wish but I have seen no validation for it compared to the other options.

Daniel333

I recommend Ubuntu, great for managing Cisco.

krauser

Mint 9 Debian or Mint 10 "Julia".

Forsaken_GA

Chris:/* wrote: »

I said nothing about it not being turned into server, where are you getting that from?

My statement was from Never seeing it used in a large scale enterprise deployment. Nor has there been any need for it compared to other Linux versions like Red Hat and SUSE.

You can use it if you want for an Enterprise deployment if you wish but I have seen no validation for it compared to the other options.

The main validation for Red Hat and SuSe is the vendor support and the fact that the non commercial vendors don't have much in the way of centralized management support. The entire reason my current company has been migrating away from Debian and FreeBSD is Satellite.

Alot of folks, especially the ones that started small, already have their own homebrew patching systems that they grew themselves, and they have the talent on staff to not need the management. Those environments will usually be some form of Debian or FreeBSD.

I handled a very large amount of migrations before I got into network engineering, and the only time I ever saw Red Hat was when folks needed the vendor support, the management, or had software that a third party vendor wouldn't support on anything but RHEL/CentOS (adobe FMS, cpanel, etc)

It all depends on the environment. Given their druthers, a sysadmin is going to choose to work with his favorite OS. Occasionally management will mandate business reasons for going with a particular flavor.

I personally maintain a mix of Debian, CentOS and FreeBSD machines in my home network to keep me from getting too complacent with one style of OS.

/pub/beer/

I use Ubuntu as a desktop OS at work. I also have virtual machines for CentOS 5, RHEL 5, and now RHEL 6.

For the Linux + exams it was very helpful to have both. I would play with apt, aptitude, synaptic on Ubuntu and then go over and use CentOS for yum and rpm. CentOS was more relevant for me while I was going though the study guide I had used.

In my work environment I have about a 95/5 split for CentOS/Debian. Some vendors just want their software running on Debian so it's nice to know.