IT pros: Learn Fedora, openSUSE, or Debian?

[DJRcomputing]

I wanted to post this as a poll, but apparently I'm too new. Has this been asked before?

I'd like to learn Linux with the objective of an IT career. While everyone has their opinions/favourites, which distro is currently the most widely deployed commercially?

1) RHEL/CentOS
2) SuSE
3) Debian/Umbuntu
4) Other (please specify)

I've searched the web to conflicting & aged results, though RHEL/CentOS seems the answer. Plus, they offer certification (worthwhile?). Looking at past server "favourite" polls, I'm surprised by Debian's rank. I thought it fell out of corporate favour due to growing "stale", despite stability. Likewise, I would've thought SuSE ranked higher. Then again, companies never listen to IT (ie: Dilbert), which is why those polls don't really help me. Whichever wins goes w/ Gnome (lighter weight?) on my "Frankenserver".

In some respects, it comes down to Fedora vs openSuSE, because I plan on dual-booting my P4 XP (current) & Umbuntu/KDE, but that will be more desktop oriented. With 500GB, maybe I should quad-boot? LOL!

Finally, perhaps a 5th option: To what extent is Linux is Linux is Linux?

[oz]

I wanted to post this as a poll, but apparently I'm too new. Has this been asked before?

Hello and welcome to the forums!

We have some "favorites" type polls that you might want to check on the following forum page:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...s-threads.html

Debian and Red Hat (or CentOS) seem to be the favorite server distros thus far in the voting process.

[PrinceSharma]

Hi and welcome,

I've been working for a big Data-Center since 2 years and have deployed only new RHEL boxes as far as Linux goes. Still I have seen people using either Cent-OS or Debian servers for their 'smaller' production environments.
My advice for you would be Install Fedora / CentOS /SL on a test box and have a Linux e-book handy.

[Jonathan183]

If I were after an IT job I'd probably do Debian, CentOS, SuSE, Gentoo - having configured them all I'd be reasonably happy to have a go at anything after that

[Rubberman]

1. Debian - root distribution for a lot of others such as Ubuntu, Mint, et al.
2. Fedora - testbed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and clones such as CentOS and Scientific Linux.
3. CentOS - widely used for cloud-based server farms. It is a Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone. Just the logos have been changes to avoid copyright/trademark violations. Unfortunately, they have dropped the ball with regard to version 6 (latest and greatest), so you might want to check out Scientific Linux - another RHEL clone, but that is fully at version 6 now.
4. Gentoo - A very different beast from the others, and will teach you more about your system hardware than just about anything else. You will really have to configure it to your specific hardware, but it runs really, really well, without a lot of additional cruft that you don't need. Example, on my Scientific Linux 6 workstation, the kernel has just about every network adapter known built in (most as loadable modules), yet I only have one manufacturer's network hardware (Intel). Why should I waste disc space on all those others? With Gentoo I could build the Intel driver directly into the kernel (not as a module) and get a better integrated system and eliminate a lot of unnecessary stuff.
5. SuSE - used to use it. Not particularly impressed. It is widely used, but redundant (just my humble opinion).
6. Linux From Scratch - this is one for the user that wants to understand what Linux is REALLY all about. You go step-by-step in building a system from bare metal.