The following table compares with: Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux | ||
|---|---|---|
| What is it? | Open Source Project | Commercial Product, based on Open Source |
| Developed by | Developer Community | Red Hat |
| Users | Early adopters, enthusiasts, developers | Mainstream production environments |
| Licensing | Open source | Open source |
| Downloads | Source and binaries | Source only, or binaries with per-system maintenance/support contract |
| Delivery | Download or third-party CDs | Download or box product from Red Hat and partners |
| Release Interval | 4-6 months | 12-18 months |
| Support Options from Red Hat | None | Many |
| Packages Included | Wide range | Carefully-selected list (only mature/supportable/recommended packages) |
| Packages Versions | Always latest and greatest | Best balance of maturity and features |
| Updates | Frequent feature updates and package version upgrades | Bugfixes and driver updates only, backported to released package versions |
| Update Lifetime | 2-3 months after next release | At least 5 years |
| Update Source | Developer Community | Red Hat |
| Features Added | Kept closer to upstream projects | Additional features and enhancements from Red Hat |
| ISV Certifications | None | Many (e.g. Oracle,VERITAS, BEA, CA, IBM) |
| Hardware Certifications | None | Many (e.g. Dell, HP, IBM) |
| Standards Certifications | None | Many |
| Testers | Developer Community | Red Hat QA, Red Hat Partners, and Beta Testers |
| Benchmarks, Performance Testing | By community | By Red Hat QA, ISV/IHV partners, and industry analysts |