For the Linux people; Redhat vs SUSE on the job?

pwjohnston

I'm a Windows SysAdmin and we currently have a half dozen CentOS 5.5 machines at my current job. I also use Fedora 14 at home. I've been trying to get up to speed on Linux and feel like sticking with the RedHat derivatives as opposed to trying a new distro whenever something new comes out has really helped me.

I have a job interview coming up and it sounds like something I'd really like. They have an upgrade of VMWare from 3.5 to 4.1 in the works and virtualization is really my focus right now. Anyway the guy told me that they use SUSE and he really doesn't like RedHat. I don't remember how he described it, but he made it sound like it was too specialized and SUSE is more open.

This is the job description.
Experience with MS Windows 2000, 2003 and 2008, Active Directory Architecture, deployment and group policies Red Hat and Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise server (SLES), OES NetWare (On Linux).

Experience with multiple virtualization products including VMware ESX and VMware desktop.

Experience with tools used to analyze and perform bulk changes to LDAP directory content including Apache LDAP studio and MS Access.

Experience with XML, LDIF, VB script., SSL and secure communications, SLP, DDNS, YAST, RPM, PAM., CRON, Sniffer Pro and Wire Shark .



Is going into a SUSE environment going to screw up all the good linux mojo I have going on? I like working in Fedora/CentOS now. Is there a real difference?

Forsaken_GA

There are differences, but you'll quickly adapt. Unix is unix. I had to make the jump from a debian shop to a red hat shop, and it was fine after a couple months after I got used to the differences in the two platforms.

undomiel

Hope you enjoy yast! Suse is what I cut my Linux teeth on. I enjoyed working with it a lot but didn't have too much difficulty porting my Linux knowledge over to RedHat. You'll still find a lot of the same packages shared between them, it'll just be a matter of tracking down where they've decided to store the configuration files. Also if you like a gui I do feel that Suse beats out RedHat here.

lordy

I had that discussion with my boss and colleagues when I started out, 10 years ago so this is pretty much an eternal debate.

In the end it comes down to pennies. Both use RPM as their packaging system and both have helpers and GUIs for some stuff. They are both Linux Distros and I would say that they equal in about 80%+.

I prefer RedHat/CentOS because Yast used to be a real pita. It used to re-create and override configs if you started it. This lead to person A editing the config by hand and person B running Yast a few days later ruining everything.

Forsaken_GA

heh, I remember debian's first release when all I had was dselect to play with. It left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the distro for a very long time. It wasn't until 3.0 that I came back to it and started playing with apt and my opinion totally changed on it. It's funny how package management can make or break your perception of a distro.

I remember back when I first started playing with Unix and the concept of package management was very in the rough. did a whole lot of compiling things by hand.

And then there was having to setup X and it's config files by hand...... bad, bad times

vCole

I came from working solely with RHEL to working with SLES 7 - 10. (and with a IBM BCU running all SLES to boot)

I still prefer RHEL/CentOS over SLES, but you'll be fine. Like others have said, Unix is Unix.

Chris:/*

I work with both versions and as an Admin I prefer RHEL if I was just a user I would prefer SUSE. The GUI in SUSE is superior to RHEL but everything else about RHEL is superior no question. YAST sucks it is better after YUM repo support was added but it does not look like it is getting any better than that. SUSE is chasing much of RHEL's features currently and with Novell's current state it only strengthens my stance to support RHEL.

If the guy says RHEL is more specialized and SUSE is more open then he is probably biased because of the corporate support RHEL has received. It is an uneducated statement as Linux is Linux in the end. I typically throw the fact that Novell is tied to Microsoft when someone makes comments like that. The little details are what makes the distro easier to use.

Dakinggamer87

Another vote for Red Hat Linux to use at work and Ubuntu on the desktop.