Enterprise Linux Server Distributions

We sent via e-mail four questions to both providers that ranged from neophyte to advanced, to both providers. Red Hat replied with the answers within
an average of two hours, and SuSE within eight.
When we pitted Red Hat Enterprise Linux
against several flavors of UnitedLinux to see how each fared as an enterprise server platform, we found each edition
of the popular GNU/Linux operating system to represent a distinct method on how to build bare metal into a working server. Installation is different,
configuration options are different, and hardware support varies across these Linux flavors.

We selected Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux as the Blue Ribbon winner in this test because while the systems were somewhat comparable in terms of
performance and management wares, Red Hat offers more hardware support, is easier to configure and offers more security options.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux comes in numerous flavors, ranging from a $179 desktop/workstation edition called Enterprise Linux WS Basic Edition to the
Enterprise Linux AS Premium Edition we tested. The premium edition, which costs about $2,500, is distinguished from its siblings by clustering
capabilities, additional hardware support and service options.