|
|
You need a Fedora or other Red Hat Linux system in front of you to make best use of the procedures and tips in this book. However, given the turmoil surrounding Red Hat's changes to the name, support options, documentation, and training for its free Linux system, we recognize that some previously faithful Red Hat supporters are now exploring other Linux systems.
Whether you plan to drop Red Hat Linux distributions altogether or simply have requirements (or desire) to use other Linuxes, we want to help transition your troubleshooting skills to those Linux systems. In particular, we want to help you understand the challenges you will face moving to SUSE and Debian Linux systems.
SUSE is an obvious alternative to Red Hat Linux distributions for those with an eye toward the enterprise. Since the acquisition of SUSE Linux by Novell, Inc., in January 2004, SUSE has become hooked in with the strong, established international sales, marketing, and development resources of Novell. SUSE is also RPM-based, so the tools for managing software packages are the same as those in Fedora and other Red Hat Linux systems.
As a Red Hat Linux troubleshooter transitioning your skills to SUSE, you will need to learn about differences in software packaging, system administration and installation tools (provided by the YaST facility in SUSE), and licensing and support issues. These and other features that you need to understand to transition from Fedora and Red Hat troubleshooting practices to SUSE troubleshooting are covered in Appendix B.
When Red Hat, Inc., dropped the official Red Hat Linux product, Debian Linux was one of the first distributions that people evaluated as an alternative to Red Hat,-particularly for small business servers. The Debian "stable" distribution (with the code name Woody), has a reputation for being rock solid, if slightly slow in implementing the latest Linux software.
Despite its stability, however, some consider Debian to be less suited for mission-critical applications because it doesn't have big-company support behind it (such as Red Hat and Novell). Installation is not as simplified as you will find in Red Hat distributions. Likewise, hardware detection can require more manual activity than it does in Red Hat. On the whole, Debian has a stronger draw for people who are more technically inclined. You won't find as many books or support options available with Debian as you will with Red Hat systems-but that's okay, since most Debian users prefer to read man pages anyway.
Appendix C covers Debian troubleshooting issues that will help you understand what you will face if you want to transition your Fedora and Red Hat Linux troubleshooting skills to Debian.
|
|