For example Red Hat Enterprise Linux or SUSE Enterprise Linux.
I’m considering switching to RHEL, to get a “professional” Linux, since it’s free if you register an account, but is it worth it?
Is the experience very different from Fedora?
Older software is the most noticeable thing. Enterprise does not mean it is better - just that it is supported for a long time and they do that by not changing much on them. They are more designed for servers rather than workstations and generally not a great experiences unless you are running hundreds or thousands of them in an enterprise situation.
Professional just means payed for. What you are paying for is support in managing the systems, not a great user experience.
For home desktops it is far nicer to be on newer software rather than things that came out 5 to 10 years ago.
Can I assume you’re not actually running an enterprise distro?
I mean, me neither, yet, but:
- Both SUSE and Red Hat have had a minor release this year, with their software being less out of date than Debian
- I feel like enterprise distros seem to be very different in the areas where differences between distros actually matter: Package management (which can be fine-tuned a lot more with application streams, security updates, package modules, etc.) and complete, up-to-date documentation (which is the thing most people miss in Linux).
I was really looking for real world experience, not a re-hashing of unvalidated opinions that have been around for >10 years (when they might have actually been true).
It looks like you have your mind made up and are looking for affirmation, not discussion. Next time, say that instead of being an ass to people trying to help you.
I think I was pretty clear with what I was asking in this thread:
“Is anyone here using an enterprise Linux distro?”
Nobody cares when someone tries to preemptively qualify incoming advice. It’s an open forum. Everyone will just ignore your criteria because you admittedly don’t know much about this. If you gave us a reason that didn’t vibe as “I think I know more than I do” I bet people would consider not chiming in.
What a normal person does is simple: just ignore the advice that they don’t value.
Try it out maybe? You’re not buying a car… There’s not much point going around and asking if you spend 20 mins trying it out and realise you don’t want to use a 5 year old DE.
Basically expect the system will change only when you update to a new version, and that you’ll need to use external PMs like flatpak or nix for all user packages if you plan on doing anything more advanced than browsing and office work.
Read their reply. This is someone who already made their mind up without even testing it.