Choosing Linux

Choosing Linux

By

Shannon Carter

Netw240 Unix/Linux

February 16, 2014

For

Professor Ramez Shamseldin

Executive Summary

The intent of this proposal is to compare or contrast the products from three different distributions for an organization choosing to incorporate Linux within their company seeking for a more powerful operating system. It entails specific products from vendors such as Red hat Inc, SUSE Inc, and The Debian Project. Included is a contrast of each vendor product server and workstation environments that go in depth about its overall functionality, cost of ownership, features, availability, etc.

Table of Contents

I. Executive Summary p. 3

II. Introduction p. 4

III. Red Hat Inc p. 5

IV. SUSE, Inc p. 6 -7

V. The Debian Project p. 8 – 9

VI. Conclusion p. 9

VII. Bibliography p. 10

What is Linux? For those who are not too technically savvy, to everyone else—it is obvious that Linux is an operating system. Furthermore, Linux is also open source, which means that the source code is released along with the actual software and that one is free to modify that source code to fit ones needs. Someone may ask “Why do I need to switch to Linux? I’m fine with my current operating system.” Well the thing is, if you are content with your current operating system by all means keep it, but Linux are for those who want more out of their operating system. For the most part, Linux has completely changed the world of information technology. Before Linux existed, there were only mainframes, Unix, and Windows and Apple was not a choice for servers therefore it has been excluded. Mainframes tend to be too expensive, time consuming, and only benefits large businesses. Unix servers, although less expensive and...