[UCI-Linux] SuSE vs. Redhat / 2-CPU Recommendations

[Charlie Zender]

Hi,

> So here's my question: How does SuSE compare with Redhat?  I'd love to 
> go with Debian, but Oracle is only certified for recent Redhat and SuSE 
> versions, so I could end up with an iffy Oracle installation.

We seem to have very similar tastes. I too would prefer Debian on all my
Linux platforms, however that's not always possible for external reasons.
Debian does not support 32/64 bit systems in a robust way yet.
So when I bought a dual Opteron to replace an aging RedHat server, I was
faced with the same choice you are now making, SuSE vs. RedHat.
I chose SuSE and I am impressed with its ease of configuration so far.
I chose SuSE for the Opteron specifically because a brainy IBM solutions
person told me that SuSE has been tuning for AMD for a few years (e.g.,
they wrote the GCC x86-64 back-end) and the threading performance on
SuSE was much superior to RedHat so that's what he always recommended
to customers. RedHat is apparently playing catch-up to SuSE, at least
on x86-64, which may not affect you.

My new server has only been up for about 48 hours so far, so
I don't know what SuSE's lifecycle is like for upgrades.
But Yast2 is great. I bought my system from Western Scientific,
as have others on this list. They come to campus fairly regularly
and are tech-savvy and good at phone-based help.

Charlie
-- 
Charlie Zender, surname@uci.edu, (949) 824-2987, Department of Earth
System Science, University of California, Irvine CA 92697-3100