white paper decision maker’s guide to enterprise linux

www.openlogic.com OpenLogic by Perforce © Perforce Software, Inc. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (0420RB21)

Executive Summary

Committing to an enterprise Linux distribution has a long-lasting and far-reaching

impact on organizations. That means companies need to make the right decision

the first time if they want to meet and exceed their business goals.

In our Decision Maker’s Guide to Enterprise Linux, we break down 20 of the top

paid and free enterprise Linux distributions, and discuss the key points decision

makers need to consider before they commit.

W H I T E PA P E R

Decision Maker’s Guide to Enterprise Linux

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Decision Maker’s Guide to Enterprise Linux


Table of ContentsOverview of the Linux Distribution Landscape ............ 3

Choosing the Right Linux Distribution ....................... 3

Free Linux Distributions ........................................... 4CentOS ................................................................................... 7

CentOS Stream ........................................................................ 7

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed ........................................................... 8

OpenSUSE LEAP ....................................................................... 8

Fedora CoreOS ........................................................................ 9

Photon OS .............................................................................. 10

Apline Linux .............................................................................11

Debian Linux ........................................................................... 12

Yocto Project ........................................................................... 13

Rocky Linux ............................................................................ 14

AlmaLinux .............................................................................. 15

Oracle Linux............................................................................ 16

Ubuntu Community ................................................................. 17

ClearOS Community ................................................................ 18

Red Hat Developer Linux .......................................................... 19

Springdale Linux .....................................................................20

Paid Linux Distributions ..........................................21Red Hat Enterprise Linux ...........................................................22

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server .....................................................23

Ubuntu Enterprise ...................................................................24

CloudLinux ............................................................................ 25

Amazon Linux .........................................................................26

Final Thoughts .................................................... 27

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3 | Decision Maker’s Guide to Enterprise Linux


Linux Distribution Landscape OverviewLinux distros, at their most basic, are a combination of

the Linux kernel, and a suite of supporting software. In

general, that suite of software will be curated from other

top-level open source projects by the community that

supports the distribution.

For instance, distributions of Linux designed to be

popular desktop operating systems might include a

lot of desktop-focused applications like media players

and focus on the customizability of the UI. In this case, a

desktop operating system is the goal, and the included

software follows those presumed use cases.

It follows, then, that individual communities will make

different decisions about which software to include with

their distribution and prioritize different use cases for

the kind of Linux that they wish to build. For instance,

the popular Kali Linux distribution contains a suite of

software that is useful for security-minded professionals

and enthusiasts, whereas Linux Mint aims to be a

straightforward, productivity-focused desktop Linux

experience.

Enterprise Linux distributions, or distributions of

Linux that are conceived to address needs specific to

businesses that build their infrastructure using Linux,

are highly variant. Committing to a particular flavor of

Linux, especially when deployed at the scale needed by

modern enterprises, will have cascading and long-lasting

impact for the business at large.

A brief history of LinuxIt’s a massive understatement to say that Linux has had

a rich history – it has probably seen the richest history of

any software product in existence. Linux emerged from

humble beginnings, with the now apotheosized creator

of both Linux and Git, Linus Torvald, posting to a GNU

community board about a small free OS he was working

on in the early 90s. In less than 10 years, IBM would

invest a billion dollars into Linus Torvald’s project, after its

meteoric rise through, now IBM-owned, Red Hat.

The IBM investment would place Linux squarely at the

feet of enterprises who wanted to squeeze more power

and efficiency out of their hardware, while saving millions

of dollars. This disruptive time would cause Steve Ballmer

of Microsoft to famously refer to Linux as a cancer that

kills IP. Now, in 2021, there are significantly more Linux

instances running inside of the Azure cloud than there

are instances of Windows Server. Microsoft has added a

Linux subsystem to Windows which allow technologies

like Docker to run on their flagship OS. There are even

prognosticators who would claim that one day Windows

may just end up as a GUI layer running on top of the Linux

kernel.

Linux’s success has also led to a large amount of

fragmentation, with a diaspora of spin-off projects that

now are their own top-level distributions, but who forked

originally from GNU Linux. Choice in open source can be

both beneficial and detrimental to the decision-making

process of a business. Our hope is that this guide will

help you choose the perfect distribution for your specific

enterprise needs.

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Choosing the Right Linux DistributionChoosing the right Linux distribution, as noted above,

requires total alignment with the benefits of the

distribution and your organizational goals. This decision

tree gives an overview of that concept by aligning core

needs with Linux distros that can support them.

Free Enterprise Linux DistributionsThere is a well-worn adage at OpenLogic regarding open

source software:

Open source software is free like a puppy – even if it’s

free, you still need to feed it, walk it, and clean up after it.

That idea applies well to free, open source Enterprise

Linux distributions. While you can save significant money

on licensing and server fees, adopting an open source

distribution also means you need an ironclad support

strategy – especially if you are operating at enterprise

scale.

Ultimately, choosing the right Linux distribution is a

complex decision, and one that should not be taken

lightly. Be sure to develop a full adoption strategy before

adopting any open source – after all, nobody wants to

return a puppy.

Viable Open Source Enterprise Linux DistributionsIn the next sections, we cover details on viable Enterprise

Linux distributions, and discuss their relative strengths

and weaknesses according to the criteria listed below.

Some, like license type, are objective. Others, like

Stability and Ecosystem Maturity are more subjective, and

present our informed opinion on a given distribution.

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Areas of AnalysisLicense – A software’s license defines entitlements such as redistribution, commercial

use, etc. It’s important to ensure that the license is compatible with your business policies

regarding distribution and use.

Stability – An A-F rating of the stability of both the product from a hardware compatibility

and software quality standpoint, as well as its community or commercial roadmap.

Ecosystem Maturity – An A-F rating of the breadth of software solutions providing a

full enterprise-class ecosystem including distributed package management, cloud

interoperability, remote desktop management, CI/CD integration, well-maintained

integration components, etc.

DistroWatch Ranking – The 12-month popularity ranking from DistroWatch.com as of

4/18/2021, which measures the popularity of the distribution based on average user visits

to each distribution page per day over the previous 12-month period.

Governance Model – This category assesses the practical governance model for the

distribution or project. If a parent corporation representative is chair, we define it as

“corporate-led.” If a parent corporation representative is on the board, but not chair, we

define it as “corporate-influenced.”

Committers – The number of people (if publicly accessible information) committing source

code changes to the distribution repository.

Contributors – The number of people (if publicly accessible information) contributing to the

distribution project.

Security Responsiveness – To measure the relative security responsiveness of these

distributions, we looked at the time-to-patch for a recent CVE, CVE-2021-3472. Patches

on the same day as the CVE announcement are considered “zero-day,” with “one-day”

representing a patch on the day after the announcement, and so on.

Security Updates – The amount of security updates/patches released from 1/1/2020 -

12/31/2020.

https://distrowatch.com/

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Free Enterprise Linux Distribution Comparison Matrix

CentOS 6, 7, 8

CentOS Stream

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

OpenSUSE LEAP

Fedora CoreOS

Photon OS

Alpine Linux

Debian Linux

Yocto Project

Rocky Linux

AlmaLinux

Oracle Linux

Ubuntu Community

ClearOS

Red Hat Developer Linux

Springdale

Distribution

4

4

4

4

4

4

GPL, ASF, MIT

GPL, ASF, MIT

openSUSE License, GPL


ASF2.0

ASF2.0, GPL

MIT and GPL

GPL, BSD, ASF2.0

N/A

GPL Expected

GPL and MIT

GPL, ASF, MIT

GPL

GPL

Red Hat EULA

GPL, ASF, MIT

License Stability (Grade Scale)

B

C

C

A

B

B

A

B

N/A

A (expected)

A (expected)

B

A

A

A

B

Ecosytem Maturity (Grade Scale)

A

A

A

A

A

C

D

A

N/A

A (expected)

A (expected)

A

B

A

A

B

DistroWatch Ranking

19

19

12

12

9

231

35

6

N/A

N/A

162

94

5

69

N/A

215

CI/CD Embedded Systems

4

4

4

Suitable For:

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CentOS DistributionsCentOS, short for Community Enterprise Operating System,

is a popular and free open source Linux distribution. A recent

shakeup from RHEL means that CentOS Stream will be the

singular focus for ongoing development.

CENTOS 6, 7, AND 8

CentOS is functionally compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux

(RHEL) and is derived from RHEL.

There are currently two supported versions of CentOS: CentOS

7, which will be community-supported through 2024, and

CentOS 8, which will be community-supported through the

remainder of 2021. CentOS 6 reached support end of life in

November, 2020.

CENTOS STREAM

CentOS Stream is the upstream, continuous delivery of RHEL.

CentOS Stream is the current open source Linux development

priority for Red Hat in terms of new CentOS development,

replacing the popular CentOS 8 Linux distributions. This release

is suitable for businesses who continuously build, test, and

release their environments and wish to benefit from automated

0-day security patching and newer functionality.

CONSIDERATIONS

For companies considering CentOS as a long-term fit, understanding the recent shift in strategy from Red Hat, and accounting

for that shift with reliable long term support is a must.

CentOS Linux continues to be a viable Enterprise Linux distribution for the next few years. While community support is ending

earlier than expected for CentOS 8, CentOS 7 is still community-supported until 2024. Commercial support vendors (like

OpenLogic) have plans to support CentOS 6, 7, and 8 well past their current support EOL dates.

For those considering CentOS Stream, the decision comes down to both your preferences for your overall Linux ecosystem,

and your current infrastructure. Everything that you expect inside a RHEL/CentOS ecosystem, such as Satellite/Spacewalk

package management, virtualization options such as oVirt, and the like will still be available to you, and you’ll receive bug

fixes and security patches on a faster schedule than before.

CentOS 6, 7, 8

CentOS Stream 4

GPL, ASF, MIT

GPL, ASF, MIT


B

C


A

A

DistroWatch Ranking

19

19


Suitable For:

Cloud

Azure, GCP,

EC2

Distribution

https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/

March 26, 2021

RPM, YUM, DNF

4

GPL and others, AWS Customer Agreement

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors

Security Responsiveness

Security Updates (2020)

Corporate-influenced Governing Board

6

Unknown

0-day

313

Community Overview

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openSUSE DistributionsThe openSUSE Project, best known for its Linux distributions

Tumbleweed and Leap, is a community project that “promotes

the use of Linux everywhere.”

openSUSE’s community is its best asset, with a truly

democratized process for committing code. Prolific contributors

can be voted in as community members, and all community

members vote on releases.

openSUSE TUMBLEWEED

If you prefer the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ecosystem, the

openSUSE community also offers a rolling-release Linux in

the form of Tumbleweed. Just as in CentOS Stream, bug fixes

and security patches will come earlier than in the comparative

openSUSE Leap regular-release distribution. Since Leap tends to

track a day or two behind in terms of generally available security

patches, enterprises who are ready for a rolling release of Linux

may seek out Tumbleweed for the benefits of 0-day vulnerability

mitigation, similar to CentOS Stream.

openSUSE LEAP

openSUSE Leap is the regular release edition of the openSUSE

Linux distribution. It exists as a “hybrid” Linux distribution, in

that it uses both source, and SUSE Linux Enterprise binaries.

Leap minor releases feature 18 months of maintenance and security updates before going EOL.

CONSIDERATIONS

openSUSE distributions focus on deployment simplicity, a familiar and lightweight toolchain, and cloud-readiness. These

distributions are generally considered to be stable for production use, and those familiar with the SLES/SUSE Linux/Slackware

product ecosystem will feel comfortable in this environment.

openSUSE Tumbleweed

openSUSE LEAP

Distribution

4openSUSE License, GPL



C

A


A

A

DistroWatch Ranking

12

12


Suitable For:

www.opensuse.org

Leap 15.2 | July 2020

Zypper

Monolithic Linux

GNU, GPL

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Community Board

Democratized - Contributors Vote to Commit

166

1-2 day (Leap) 0-day (Tumbleweed)

1400+

Community Overview

https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Leap

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Fedora CoreOSFedora CoreOS is a fully container-optimized distribution

that sits upstream from RHEL, but offers three distinct update

channels of its own: Stable, Test, and Next. CoreOS’s Stable

branch is acceptable for businesses who wish to deliver

container-orchestrated environments that look and feel like

products from the RHEL ecosystem.

CONSIDERATIONS

The main reason businesses choose to run Fedora CoreOS

is they are running in OpenShift. Red Hat has positioned

Fedora CoreOS to be the first-class citizen OS in OpenShift

deployments.

In general, if you are running container workloads, it makes

sense to start with a container-optimized distribution of Linux.

These distributions contain “just enough” of the operating

system core to support running small lightweight apps and/or

microservices.

12-Factor rules around disposability tell us that one of the most

important features of a healthy 12-factor app is near-instant

startup and graceful shutdown. By stripping away concerns

from the operating system that are unnecessary when building

lightweight applications, we can ensure that these applications

remain readily available in highly ephemeral environments.

Fedora CoreOS

Distribution

4ASF2.0


B


A

DistroWatch Ranking

9


Suitable For:

https://getfedora.org/en/coreos

33 | Oct. 2020

RPM, DNF, Flatpak

5

GPL and others

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Corporate-Led Governing Board

?

54

0-day

1798

Community Overview

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Photon OSPhoton OS is an open source Enterprise Linux distribution built

for use in “cloud-native applications, platforms, and VMware

infrastructure.” There are four Photon OS runtimes, a minimal

version, a full version, an RPM OSTree version, and the Photon

Real-Time Operating System.

CONSIDERATIONS

Photon OS is VMWare’s entry into the container space,

alongside their Tanzu Kubernetes grid product. This is VMWare’s

“table stakes” offering to maintain their competitive viability as

a virtualization company.

If you are planning to maintain a relationship with VMWare

for a period of time, or can take fiscal advantage of migrating

workloads to Tanzu, leveraging your existing VMWare contracts,

then it makes sense to consider Photon OS.

Bear in mind that many businesses are using cloud and

container migrations as an opportunity to reduce vendor lock-

in, and choosing Photon OS and Tanzu will keep your workloads

effectively locked in to VMWare’s ecosystem.

Photon OS

Distribution

ASF2.0, GPL



Cloud CI/CD Embedded Systems

Suitable For:

Paid

C B A A

https://vmware.github.io/photon

4.0 | March 2021

tdnf

Linux

GNU GPL v2, Apache License v2.0

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Corporate

16

92

?

?

Community Overview

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Alpine LinuxAlpine Linux is a lightweight, open source Enterprise Linux

distribution designed for “security, simplicity, and resource

efficiency.”

CONSIDERATIONS

Alpine Linux is considered a business-class embedded Linux

distribution primarily because of its focus on security, though its

usability and efficiency are very good reasons to consider it

as well.

Alpine Linux takes special steps to ensure the code you are

running in your environment can’t be tampered with, which is its

main selling point; but the choice of ‘apt’ as a package manager

also ensures ease of use with existing ecosystem products.

As more businesses invest in IoT strategies, or as more LPC

devices have a need for broader functionality, having an

operating system like Alpine available is critical. Alpine can help

keep IoT assets secure, as well as the IP running on those assets.

“Stack smashing protection,” or protection against attacks

that take advantage of overflow conditions, ensures that even

unpatched 0-day vulnerabilities have a low chance

of exploitability.

In automated or factory environments, even air gaps are beginning to fade in favor of smart connectivity, so security at

machine layer will be critical, and Alpine provides an excellent strategy for that.

Alpine Linux

Distribution

4MIT and GPL


A


D

DistroWatch Ranking

35


Suitable For:

https://alpinelinux.org/

3.13.0 | Jan 2021

APK

Mono Linux

GPL2, MIT

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Electoral

8

?

1-day

?

Community Overview

https://alpinelinux.org/about/

https://alpinelinux.org/about/

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Debian LinuxDebian is a popular open source Linux distribution used for

personal computers and servers. Referring to the timeline

above, you can see that Debian was released prior to RHEL,

and not long after the initial release of GNU Linux. It’s incredibly

popular amongst veteran Linux enthusiasts, and for many

practicitioners was the first flavor of Linux they used practically.

CONSIDERATIONS

Although Debian also makes a great server or desktop

environment, billing itself as the “Universal Operating System,”

it is also an excellent choice for embedded systems. It’s as

lightweight as you want it to be, offering an unparalleled level

of flexibility in a flavor of Linux that is so mature. Debian is the

base for other popular Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and

Linux Mint.

Debian’s maturity in both its community model, build process,

and overal package curation is what has allowed this level

of flexibilty. For many enterprises, that flexilibity becomes

a liability, as choice doesn’t always bring value to highly

regulated environments. In these cases, a derivative such as

Ubuntu may be a better choice. You’ll benefit from Debian’s

solid core, while having access to tooling that may be more

comfortable for business users.

Debian Linux

Distribution

4GPL, BSD, ASF2.0


B


A

DistroWatch Ranking

6


Suitable For:

4

https://www.debian.org/

10.9 | March 2021

Apt

4

DFSG-compatible licenses

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Electoral

42

1052

0-day

460

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



Yocto ProjectThe Yocto Project isn’t a traditional distribution. Instead, it’s a

collection of “templates, tools and methods to help you create

custom Linux-based systems.”

Yocto’s toolchain makes it easy to generate a custom Linux

environment based on the characteristics of your hardware

and your administration preferences, such as your choice of

package manager.

CONSIDERATIONS

The Yocto Project is interesting in that it isn’t one single

embedded distribution of Linux, but rather a collaboration

suite and toolkit that allows for the generation of bespoke

embedded Linux environments based on a set of criteria.

Yocto is ideal for enterprises who build hardware in highly

collaborative environments. This includes companies who build

LPCs for manufacturing, consumer devices like wearables, IoT

devices, etc. Given that the evolution of a software business

seems to ultimately lead to bespoke hardware (see: Google

Mini, FitBit, Oculus Quest), it would make sense that the

collaborative spirit of a software company would come with

it. Yocto’s collaboration-first approach and overall flexibility is

ideal for environments like that.

Yocto Project

Distribution

4N/A


N/A


N/A

DistroWatch Ranking

N/A


Suitable For:

4

www.yoctoproject.org

3.2.3 | Nov. 2020

DEB, RPM, OPK

Linux

GNU?

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



“Do-ocracy”

?

?

N/A

N/A

Community Overview

https://www.yoctoproject.org/about/

https://www.yoctoproject.org/about/

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Rocky LinuxRocky Linux is an open source, Enterprise Linux distribution

“designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible” with RHEL.

Led by the creator of the original CentOS project, Gregory

Kurtzer, Rocky Linux aims to match CentOS’s existing build

process, rebuilding each Red Hat source RPM at each release

to ensure binary compatibility.

CONSIDERATIONS

Although at the time of publication this distribution is still a

work-in-progress, the Rocky Linux project shows enormous

potential. Within days of the announcement of its creation,

thousands of volunteer Linux developers and enthusiasts

had already flocked to the Slack channel, and hundreds had

pledged to volunteer their time.

If the previous success of CentOS in the enterprise is any

indicator, we should expect a highly stable and enterprise-class

operating system out of Rocky Linux, with all the benefits we’ve

enjoyed from the RHEL ecosystem. That said, it is hard to fully

endorse a project that hasn’t seen a release yet, so we’d caution

anyone against committing to Rocky for their immediate

Linux needs.

Rocky Linux

Distribution

GPL Expected


A (expected)


A (expected)

DistroWatch Ranking

N/A


Suitable For:

https://rockylinux.org

TBD

RPM

Monolithic Linux

BSD, others

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Founder-Leader

28

28

TBD

N/A

Community Overview

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AlmaLinuxMaintained by the CloudLinux organization, AlmaLinux

promises to be a free RHEL clone rebuilt regularly from the RHEL

source RPMs. AlmaLinux was previously known as Project Lenix

before a name change in January of 2021. This distribution aims

to directly fill the void left by CentOS 8’s original LTS promise,

with CloudLinux committing to supporting the distribution

through 2029.

CONSIDERATIONS

CloudLinux was, in many ways, uniquely positioned to deal

with the distruption of CentOS Stream. Though I expect

AlmaLinux will, at launch, provide the same benefits of CentOS

built as a stable release, a question remains as to whether

CloudLinux will be able to make the product fit with their overall

business model.

With that, it’s hard to make guesses about the future of Alma.

When compared to Rocky Linux, its development is further

along, with a usable demo release already available. That said,

given that most of the development momentum is coming from

within a single company, being CloudLinux, and the unclear

indicators as to how Alma will help CloudLinux grow their

profitability, Rocky Linux’s sheer inertia may project it down a

longer lifespan in terms of viability.

AlmaLinux

Distribution

GPL and MIT


A (expected)


A (expected)

DistroWatch Ranking

162


Suitable For:

https://almalinux.org

8.3 RC

RPM?

Linux

GPLv2 and others

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Corporate-Influenced Governing Board

?

8

TBD

N/A

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



Oracle LinuxOracle Linux is a free, open source Enterprise Linux operating

system developed and maintained by Oracle. It is 100% binary-

compatible with RHEL, and claims to have faster kernel updates

than CentOS.

CONSIDERATIONS

At the moment, Oracle Linux would appear to be one of

the most viable choices for remaining on a regular-release

RHEL clone. It has been building for years, and like CentOS,

is a binary-compatible rebuild of the Red Hat source RPMs.

Although the community at large is wary of adopting free

software that bears the Oracle logo, at the time of writing this

report there is no technical reason not to consider this release.

Oracle’s build process is stable and matches what

administrators are used to in the RHEL ecosystem. It is

compatible with the suite of software in that ecosystem, and

RPMs built for CentOS or RHEL will, for the most part, install

without error because of this binary compatibiity.

It’s up to businesses to decide whether they trust Oracle not to

lock the operating system later. Oracle did make a similar move

with Java in January of 2019, when it begun to treat Oracle Java

8 as an LTS product, and required businesses to engage in an

enterprise support contract in order to keep using it

in production.

Oracle Linux

Distribution

GPL, ASF, MIT


B


A

DistroWatch Ranking

94


Suitable For:

www.oracle.com/linux

8.3 | Nov. 2020

RPM

Monolithic Linux

GNU, GPL, Others

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Corporate Governing Board

3

515

?

1226

Community Overview

https://linux.oracle.com/switch/centos/

https://linux.oracle.com/switch/centos/

WHITE PAPER



Ubuntu CommunityUbuntu is Debian-based open source Enterprise Linux

distribution. It has three versions – Desktop, Server, and Core

Ut. It is developed jointly by contributors from Canonical and

the community at large.

CONSIDERATIONS

Ubuntu Community edition is a solid choice for both desktop

and server Linux. Although it is sometimes criticized for its

rigid design choices and feature set, it represents a powerful

distribution that is safe for enterprise use. Ubuntu stems from

the Debian distribution of Linux, and follows many of the

directions of that community, such as the choice of the apt

ecosystem for package management.

This stable core makes it suitable for large enterprise

workloads, and its wide adoption in the desktop market makes

it easy to find talented administrators.

Further, the distribution of Ubuntu is exactly the same as

Ubuntu Enterprise, so its very easy for enterprises to turn on

and off an enterprise support relationship with Ubuntu should

they choose that route.

Ubuntu Community

Distribution

GPL


A


B

DistroWatch Ranking

5


Suitable For:

https://ubuntu.com/

20.10 | Oct. 2020

GNOME Software, APT, dpkg, Snappy, flatpak

5

Mostly GPL, some optional proprietary drivers

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Community Council, Technical Board, Mark Shuttleworth (Self Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life)

85

615

0-day

634

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



ClearOS CommunityClearOS, backed by HPE, is a RHEL clone that is built with

simplicity of deployment in mind. It is geared towards small to

mid-sized businesses and is even advertised specifically as a

distribution for running at home. Its flagship functionality is its

impressive web interface, which can be used to fully manage

the installation remotely.

CONSIDERATIONS

ClearOS is a very well-thought-out operating system, with a

nice clean community infrastructure, distribution channel,

and messaging.

Development is not moving at the same pace as its

counterparts, with the major version still being 7, and the kernel

still locked to version 3. That said, ClearOS is maintained mostly

for specific use cases.

For the large enterprise, I’d be concerned that ClearOS doesn’t

keep the development cadence of other enterprise flavors of

Linux. Most other flavors are at least on Kernel 4, with Ubuntu

already on Kernel 5. Kernels 4 and 5 both contain optimizations

that make running cloud workloads cheaper, a major

consideration for most enterprises.

ClearOS

Distribution

GPL


A


A

DistroWatch Ranking

69


Suitable For:

www.clearos.com/

20.10 | Oct. 2020

swupd, flatpak

3

GPL and Others

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Electoral Board

4

?

?

?

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



Red Hat Developer LinuxRed Hat Developer Linux is part of a no-cost, development-only

subscription used in developing enterprise applications. It’s

available as part of the Red Hat Developer Program.

Upon the announcement of the shift in focus to CentOS Stream,

Red Hat, rather conspicuously, also made a new free licensing

program available. Individual developers may subscribe to up

to 16 machine instances of RHEL for free.

CONSIDERATIONS

Unless you’re a very small company, 16 licenses will not be

suitable, so it’s fair to say that this program is mostly to create

runway and demand for businesses to buy more RHEL licenses.

That said, all of the benefits of a RHEL subscription come

with the operating system, alongside the typical lock-in. The

operating system is completely unlocked, and can integrate

with the standard enterprise components such as Satellite.

Red Hat Developer Linux

Distribution

Red Hat EULA


A


A

DistroWatch Ranking

N/A


Suitable For:

https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux 8.3 | Oct. 2020

RPM

4

Red Hat EULA

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Red Hat board of directors, Fedora community

5 https://github.com/orgs/RedHatOfficial/people

1000+

0-Day

5,612 https://access.redhat.com/errata/#/

Community Overview

http://developers.redhat.com/

https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux



https://github.com/orgs/RedHatOfficial/people


https://access.redhat.com/errata/#/


WHITE PAPER



SpringdaleSpringdale is a RHEL clone built from the source RPMs at each

release. Like CentOS Linux/AlmaLinux/Rocky Linux, it is binary

compatible with RHEL.

Springdale aims to serve the math and science communities

and includes special repositories with toolkits specific to those

disciplines, such as computational libraries.

CONSIDERATIONS

Springdale has been brought up in a lot of recent discussions

about being a possible CentOS replacement for enterprises,

given its build model. That said, even the Springdale

community at large isn’t in favor of this design choice.

Springdale really is better suited to academic environments

where workloads can be less fault-tolerant and more flexible.

Springdale

Distribution

GPL, ASF, MIT


B


B

DistroWatch Ranking

215


Suitable For:

Get Support and Guidance for Your Open Source Enterprise LinuxWhether you’re modernizing a legacy system, or living on the bleeding edge of open source innovation,

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http://springdale.math.ias.edu/

7.9

RPM

3

GPL and ithers

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



“Do-ocracy”

Not Published

Not Published

2 weeks+

Not Published

Community Overview

https://www.openlogic.com/solutions/enterprise-linux-support



WHITE PAPER



Paid Linux DistributionsWhile mainstream commercial Linux vendors offer a lot of value, they do come at the cost of license expense and vendor

lock-in. Typically, commercial Linux vendors will offer guaranteed support SLA/SLO contracts as well as enhanced

maintenance and management services, such as patching and vulnerability management, in exchange for a slice of your

business’s IT budget.

We will compare five of the most popular commercial enterprise Linux variants in this section.

Free Enterprise Linux Distribution Comparison Matrix

Red Hat

Enterprise Linux

SUSE Linux

Enterprise Server

Ubuntu Enterprise

CloudLinux

Amazon Linux

Distribution

Red Hat EULA

SUSE Linux Enterprise

EULA

GPL and Ubuntu

Advantage

CloudLinux EULA

GPL and others, AWS

Customer Agreement


B

C

C

B

A


A

A

A

A

A

DistroWatch Ranking

19

19

12

9

12


Suitable For:

Vendor Lock-In

4

4

4

4

4

Cloud

4

4

WHITE PAPER



Red Hat Enterprise LinuxArguably the most widely recognized commercial enterprise

Linux distribution on the market, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is

the clear dominator in the space. Its recent acquisition by IBM

has validated its worth as a business software entity, and as a

company, Red Hat has been able to keep pace with current

trends like cloud-native container orchestration.

CONSIDERATIONS

As the saying now goes, “No one ever got fired for buying Red

Hat.” Red Hat is fully accepted into the Enterprise Landscape.

There are even specific operational disciplines that deal strictly

in building ELA and other large agreements with Red Hat’s

procurement.

This maturity has only been accelerated by the IBM deal, and

IBM has reported its first profitable quarter in over a year,

largely due to a 17% bump in Red Hat revenue as reported on

April 20th, 2021.

As with any software product backed by a behemoth, you’ll

want to consider how much lock-in you are willing to accept for

the reduction in overall friction that comes with a paid, off-the-

shelf solution. Red Hat’s pricing model tends to go up per-unit

as you consume more of their product, so, expect exponential

cost growth as you grow your infrastructure. In some ways,

Red Hat’s vertically integrated and prioprietary solutions can

actually stymie growth, so be sure you balance vendor lock-in

with other programs to stimulate innovation.

Red Hat

Enterprise Linux

Distribution

Red Hat EULA


B


A

DistroWatch Ranking

19


Suitable For:

Vendor Lock-In

4

Cloud

https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux 8.3 | Oct. 2020

RPM

4

Red Hat EULA

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Red Hat board of directors, Fedora community

5 https://github.com/orgs/RedHatOfficial/people

1000+

0-Day

5,612 https://access.redhat.com/errata/#/

Community Overview








WHITE PAPER



SUSE Linux Enterprise ServerSUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is the commercial

counterpart to the OpenSUSE Linux distribution and is backed

by SUSE’s commercial support offerings.

Just like openSUSE, SLES focuses on deployment simplicity, a

lightweight toolchain and ecosystem, and cloud-readiness.

CONSIDERATIONS

If you are comfortable with, or prefer a SUSE/Slackware

Linux experience, then this is the best choice for commercial

enterprise Linux.

SUSE is ultra-responsive to security notifications in the wild and

opens enterprises to a safe means of adopting Linux kernel 5.

The YaST control panel provides administrators with a single

pane to manage individual hosts and can manage enterprise-

scale deployments with the SUSE Manager application.

Distributions of SLES are available in a range of sizes, from

embeddable IoT-suitable images to large monolithic enterprise

servers. SUSE’s recent purchae of Rancher indicates that they

are ready to build for the future, making their release one the

most DevOps-friendly releases available.

SUSE Linux

Enterprise Server

Distribution

SUSE Linux

Enterprise EULA


C


A

DistroWatch Ranking

19


Suitable For:

Vendor Lock-In

4

Cloud

https://www.suse.com/products/server/

15 SP1 | February 2021

Zypper

5

SUSE Linux Enterprise EULA

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Downstream from OpenSUSE Community Board

Democratized - Contributors Vote to Commit

529

0-day

1400+

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



Ubuntu EnterpriseUbuntu Enterprise is a combination of the open source Ubuntu

community Linux distribution and their enterprise support

solution, Ubuntu Advantage.

CONSIDERATIONS

Ubuntu Enterprise is really just the Ubuntu community

distribution with some addons like commercial support, as well

as a number of related paid services offerings.

These services include things like builds of the OpenStack

environment (which is invested in heavily by Ubuntu’s

commercial entity, Canonical), hardware certification for

hardware vendors, and Kubernetes implementations

of Ubuntu.

So, the main consideration is whether you want paid support

for the operating system from Canonical and are willing to lock

into their Ubuntu Advantage licensing.

It bears mentioning that many of their professional services

are offered without support, so you can use Ubuntu Enterprise

services for shorter-term or more limited work rather than

full-blown support.

Ubuntu Enterprise

Distribution

GPL and Ubuntu

Advantage


C


A

DistroWatch Ranking

12


Suitable For:

Vendor Lock-In

4

Cloud

https://ubuntu.com/download/server#enterprise

20.10

Apt

5

Mostly GPL, some optional proprietary drivers, Ubuntu Advantage

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors

Community Council, Technical Board, Mark Shuttleworth (Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life)

85 https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev

615 https://launchpad.net/~ubuntumembers

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



CloudLinuxCloudLinux is a commercial fork of RHEL that is aimed at cloud

and hosting providers but is also advertised as a solid choice

for production environments. It offers a simple per-license

subscription payment model and an enhanced offering that

includes dedicated support.

Although it is a rebuild of RHEL’s source RPMs, it does have

some additional functionality such as a virtualized per-user file

system and a number of pre-packaged monitoring solutions.

CONSIDERATIONS

The first consideration when assessing CloudLinux is pretty

straightforward – “Are you a hosting provider?” This flavor

was built with hosting concerns in mind, and while stability is

certainly one of those considerations, that stability can also be

achieved in flavors you don’t have to pay for.

As mentioned above in the AlmaLinux section, the team behind

CloudLinux provides a free build with all of the stability benefits

of RHEL as a GPL distribution.

If your business has hosting concerns, CloudLinux offers

additional value beyond a base, well-maintained OS, with

monitoring and enhanced hardware support among those

offerings. CloudLinux also offers an ELS capability for CentOS 6,

building a limited set of packages such as openSSL and Python

from upstream sources.

CloudLinux

Distribution

CloudLinux EULA


B


A

DistroWatch Ranking

9


Suitable For:

Vendor Lock-In

4

Cloud

4

https://www.cloudlinux.com/

8.3 | Dec. 2020

RPM, YUM, DNF

4

CloudLinux EULA

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Downstream from Red Hat, Internal Directors

4

N/A

0-day

Tracked Red Hat Errata

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



Amazon LinuxAmazon Linux is an Enterprise Linux distribution built by

Amazon Web Services. It is built to integrate with AWS services,

and is free – provided you pay the “standard Amazon EC2 and

AWS charges” for “running Amazon EC2 instances and other

services.”

Amazon Linux does fork the original Linux kernel source, and

it builds behind the Red Hat source RPMs. For the most part it

carries the license obligations of the underlying packages and

technologies that are distributed with it. In fact, Amazon doesn’t

explicitly copyright its own tooling it has added, allowing the

blanket GPL coverage to extend to it.

CONSIDERATIONS

We don’t know all of the details of what’s gone into the Amazon

Linux mix behind the scenes, given that it now bills itself as an

independent distribution of Linux that is maintained by Amazon.

Its RHEL/CentOS roots are still visible, and the distribution was

originally built from those sources at inception.

That said, it has deviated quite a bit from its original state, and

really should be considered a stable flavor of Linux that is cheap

to run on Amazon EC2, albeit proprietary to that platform.

Technically you could spin up an Amazon Linux instance from

the code and configuration that is made available to you on their

repository, but the only real advantage to that would be establishing Dev/Prod parity for applications you plan to later run in

EC2. The optimizations added to Amazon Linux really only apply to instances of the operating system that are running in EC2,

so, outside of their cloud there’s not really a reason to run it, and a better choice is upstream RHEL or CentOS.

Amazon Linux

Distribution

GPL and others,

AWS Customer

Agreement


A


A

DistroWatch Ranking

12


Suitable For:

Vendor Lock-In

4

Cloud

4

https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/

March 26, 2021

RPM, YUM, DNF

4

GPL and others, AWS Customer Agreement

Website

Latest Release

Package Manager(s)

Kernel

License(s)

Governance Model

Committers

Contributors



Corporate

Private

Private

2 weeks+

126https://alas.aws.amazon.com/

Community Overview

WHITE PAPER



About Perforce

Perforce powers innovation at unrivaled scale. With a portfolio of scalable DevOps solutions, we help modern enterprises overcome complex product development challenges by improving productivity, visibility, and security throughout the product lifecycle. Our portfolio includes solutions for Agile planning & ALM, API management, automated mobile & web testing, embeddable analytics, open source support, repository management, static code analysis, version control, IP lifecycle management, and more. With over 20,000 customers, Perforce is trusted by the world’s leading brands to drive their business critical technology development. For more information, visit www.perforce.com.

Closing ThoughtsDeciding on which distribution of Linux is right for your

business involves a number of variables and factors.

Taking the time to understand each distribution, what it

can help your business achieve, and where you might

find friction in implementation is key to succeeding with

the next generation of Enterprise Linux.

Linux is very sticky in an organization, and so the choices

that you make now are likely to impact your business for

years, or, if history serves as any example, even decades.

It’s worth the diligence to scrutinize the release according

to the factors that we’ve laid out in this guide.

Seek a distribution model that reduces friction,

while balancing a strong support model. Be sure the

distribution and corresponding community has a solid

future roadmap for features and viability. Pay attention

to the community governance model, and their overall

health indicators such as their commit frequency, and the

speed at which they respond to security threats.

By being diligent in your analyis, you’ll take advantage

of all the benefits that Enterprise Linux can bring to

your organization, including reduced TCO, increased

innovation, and faster time to market, while balancing the

extant risks and pitfalls.

Get Support on Your Enterprise Linux Journey Whether you are ready to migrate to a new Enterprise

Linux distro, or you need help planning your next move,

our Enterprise Linux experts can help make your journey a

success with our 24x7 SLAs driving support and services.

TALK TO AN EXPERT

openlogic.com/solutions/enterprise-linux-support

https://www.openlogic.com/solutions/enterprise-linux-support

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