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

  • s20
    10·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • pastermil@sh.itjust.works
      71·
      10 months ago

      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.

      • s20
        51·
        10 months ago

        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.

        • Macaroni9538OP
          2·
          10 months ago

          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

          • s20
            2·
            10 months ago

            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:

            1. 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.
            2. 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.

            • Macaroni9538OP
              1·
              10 months ago

              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

              • s20
                2·
                10 months ago

                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:

                https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide

        • pastermil@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          10 months ago

          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.

          • s20
            2·
            10 months ago

            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.

    • Macaroni9538OP
      1·
      10 months ago

      Thanks, thats pretty much what I was thinking. Trying to explore other areas of linux lol