[TriLUG] RHES

[rwshep2000.2725323 at bloglines.com]

One of our core applications is being ported to GNU/Linux, but the developer
will only certify it for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (hereafter RHEL). Please
do not suggest I try to run the application on a different flavor of Linux.
 The vendor certifies it only for RHEL, and won't officially support other
distros.

The system our core application currently resides on is an SGI
IRIX machine, now long in the tooth. The system manages some 500GB of graphics
files on large arrays, and performs processing-intensive RIPs and other file
conversions. 

We're evaluating upgrades, and the supported OS are IRIX,
Solaris, OSX, Windows and now RHEL.  Each has strengths and weaknesses, obviously.
 In order to make as informed a decision as possible, I'd like to learn about
the strengths and weaknesses of RHEL.

We're unhappy with the expensive
boutique hardware of SGI, and are likewise skeptical of Sun.  Apple OSX is
very much a contender.

However, we're drawn to the commodity prices of
x86 hardware, as well as the more general availability of parts and service.
 RHEL presents us with a new means to enjoy x86 hardware.

Our only experience
with Red Hat was Red Hat Linux 8.0, which we used only for a simple fileserver.
 We have more experience with current versions of Debian and SuSE.

* How
often have you folks had to rely on Red Hat's technical support, and how would
you rate it?
* Have you experienced any trouble with RHEL "officially" supporting
various hardware, or run into other distro-specific restrictions?
* Allowing
that we do have Linux expertise, would you choose RHES over OSX?

Remember,
we can't consider alternative Linux distros because they are not supported
by the software vendor.

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Bob Shepherd