RedHat Fedora verses Enterprise

[customle]

I am changing hosting companies and going from Windows 2000 to a Linix Server. I have a choice between RedHat Fedora or Enterprise. What is the difference? The hosting company said frequent updates are available for Fedora, but not as much for Enterprise. Is there a big difference in the two?

Also, does anyone know the difference between cPanel and cPanel Fantastico? I have a choice here for my new server and my hosting company does not recommend Fantastico, although both are available. Any suggestions?

[netman4ttm]

Fedora is bleeding edge, Linux.
The Enterprise version is a heavily updated 7.3 RedHat that is extremely stable; although not necessarily the most recent version of any given program

[cyanide]

cPanel is a control panel for managing your domain.
You can set up databases, view web-stats, sub-domains, and lots more.

Fantastico is an add-on for cPanel. It is an auto-installer of many open-source scripts. We recently acquired it on our servers. I would say it's a handy program for newbies to database-driven programs. If you are managing the websites yourself, you may not really need it.

Enterprise is the commercialized version of Linux.
It is more stable, because updates need to be proven stable before upgrading. If all you're doing is web-hosting, with not much care to managing the OS, then Enterprise is the way to go

[USALUG]

I'd agree, go with RHEL. Very stable.

[netman4ttm]

Another issue that might come up is the database.

Enterprise uses a RedHat variant of PostgreSQL. Fedora uses off the shelf PostgreSQL or MySQL or what ever the ISP added. USALUG probably can clue you in on this one.

FYI the Army Corp of Engineers uses Fedora Core 2 for name servers, routers but Enterprise for web.

[USALUG]

Another issue that might come up is the database.

Enterprise uses a RedHat variant of PostgreSQL. Fedora uses off the shelf PostgreSQL or MySQL or what ever the ISP added. USALUG probably can clue you in on this one.

FYI the Army Corp of Engineers uses Fedora Core 2 for name servers, routers but Enterprise for web.

Interesting that you mention mysql. I was setting up a webserver and noticed that Fedora Core 2 is using an OLDER version of mysql (wasn't compatible with the databases I needed to use from a previous dump), it appears there was/is/are some issues as far as the Fedora Core team are concerned with the newer versions of mysql. I ended up having to use Mandrake 10 in order to get a mysql server version that was compatible with the databases I had.

I suppose I could have upgraded FC2, but i had played around with it so much i was going to have to reinstall anyway, and wanted to try Mandrake 10.

FWIW here is a comparision table supplied by Fedora (Fedora / RHEL) http://fedora.redhat.com/about/rhel.html

RHEL website: http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/
FEDORA website: http://fedora.redhat.com/

[rackaid]

I have found both Fedora Core 1 and RHEL to be very stable. We manage a number of systems (>100) using RH 7.2 through Fedora/RHEL.

I have found RHEL to be very good from a management standpoint. I prefer not to due too many updates on production systems. RedHat mostly limits updates to fixing serious bugs and security problems. Fedora is often ahead of RHEL with respect to versions of popular web hosting related items like mysql, php, apache, etc. However, unless you need these new features then why install them?

One issue with RHEL is that many development libs seem to be missing. The latter is problematic when doing custom builds of apache, php or other apps. Fortunately many of the fedora SRPMs rebuild on RHE.


Generally, unless the system uses a control panel, e.g. cpanel, plesk, or ensim, we build web related programs from source using the latest stable versions. Compiling your own versions can give significant performance benefits over sometimes all-inclusive RPMs. For example, on dual proc servers, you will see a benefit from compiling apache with the worker MPM rather than the child-process MPM that is included in the RPM.


My vote is always for RHEL in a production enviroment. One issue is to find out if the service provider has a support contract from RedHat. RHEL requires a maintenace contract to use the up2date tools they provide.