Server type Laptop -Oracle

Hi all,

I'm an IT guy but very new to Linux. I've been playing around with many distro's and various desktop shells in search of a flavor. As a result of multiple Live cd's, installs, and a few VM's I narrowed it down to “Neapolitan”. Ha! Currently I'm running Ubuntu with three shells, three VM's and just need to make a decision. The outcome will be a dual boot scenario do to work environment, because I'm now hooked.

Scenario: The initial reasoning I began to learn Linux desktop was to gain experience that will help me transition to enterprise level Linux. I will be building a lab in a couple of months, waiting on hardware, and the plan is to run Oracle Linux. (Cluster environment/HBASE/Hadoop) I have another laptop that I want to run OS Linux similar to Redhat/Oracle. I'm thinking it will be CentOS or Fedora but I'm not sure. I have not ran CentOS yet but I have installed Fedora. I just want to run server on a laptop to learn back-end/admin commands.

Question: What recommendations can you offer for a OS distro, hardware laptop, closest to Oracle/Redhat? Or just wait for Oracle...

Thanks!

--ZZ

Both Centos and Fedora are good, solid candidates.

You can still learn server command on a Linux desktop. You don't have to load CentOS or OEL on the laptop just because that is what you are running.

Keep in mind that Linux is Linux. Debian, Red Hat, OEL, etc.... They are all basically the same. The only real difference is where they put files, and the versions of certain apps/libs/binaries. That is the real main difference.

Just as an example - I typically run Ubuntu on my laptop, but support both Debian and SuSE systems. I run Ubuntu because it supports all my laptop hardware with few issues.

Just something to keep in mind.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I totally understand running Linux is running Linux. Things like file locations and package interaction in compliance with Redhat are some of the things I'm interested in. I noticed some differences so far, so I was wanting something closer out of the box.

I to love that “plug and play” Ubuntu on my laptops.

Software Center is a "Love / Hate" relationship.