It is about time for me to do another post. I have been spending the last few weeks comparing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 sp1 together. As the both servers can serve the same purpose and do many of the same things, I have found one to be very well polished and a highly competitive to Windows 2003 server.

Red Hat Enterprise Server 5, for some reason seems to have the same look and feel as I have always known Red Hat to have. Virtualization seems to be a big factor in the Enterprise Linux distributions, Red Hat now boosts an XEN kernel for all your virtualization needs. I tried to find some other features that would differ RHEL5 from the other versions, and besides the XEN kernel I was baffled into what has actually changed.

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 sp1, I can only say one thing about SLES10sp1; WOW! I am amazed that every Linux shop is not jumping ship to this well polished animal that Novell created. The only thing I could figure out was that many in the I.T. industry supporting Linux are still bitter about the Novell Microsoft deal over a year ago. I can not get over the YAST setup carried over from SLES9. Many visual differences are seen from install but the functionality has greatly approved. The great thing about installing with YAST is that an engineer has the ability to fully customise their server from the time of install. This has been one part in Red Hat that I have felt has been missing for a long time. Red Hat has the different install types, where SLES10 is fully customizable from the start. The GNOME GUI is so well visually polished that a new engineer could function on SLES10 in no time at all. Many other Linux distributions utilize GNOME, but the SLES10 GNOME interface seems to be more seamless and easier to utilize. Changes to the start menu and to YAST2 graphical interfaces are much improved and end up being easier and less complex than Windows 2003 servers graphical interface.

I will not say much more about the two operating systems, but for those of you who are running Red Hat, I have one suggestion. Get off the Novell Microsoft deal and get over it, you are missing out on the best enterprise Linux to date and should tackle SLES10 with an open mind.

My view on the Novell Microsoft deal is this. Novell has become an open source company that is attempting to launch open source forward and make it a viable solution in the enterprise. Novell has done something that other Linux distributions have been afraid of, create an environment where Linux and Microsoft will work together. Novell is absolutely correct that the enterprise will not replace Windows Servers, but by working with Microsoft we can now bring Linux and Windows together and help grow the Linux market.