Debian OS vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Debian OS
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Debian OS is an open source operating system.N/A
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a Linux distribution mainly used in commercial data centers.N/A
Pricing
Debian OSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Debian OSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Debian OSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Considered Both Products
Debian OS
Chose Debian OS
For our Linux servers, we felt that Debian suited us better than any alternative we've used previously, for a number of reasons.
Although RedHat could be said to have advantages with being backed by a very large company with a bucket full of cash, this does mean it has a more …
Chose Debian OS
When compared to others, Debian runs smoother and faster and has great support for feature set with it. Even installing other supporting tools or IDEs for development work is pretty easier. With few simple commands and a good internet connection all the debian packages from the …
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
RHEL is better for most use cases that I use professionally for sure. It's the best choice for a professional development environment or a professional server environment.
Chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
They have their own pluses and minuses, but for what RHEL eight is and for what it does, I would recommend it above anything else for an enterprise. Two, consistency and stability of the environment, making sure the packages that our developers need are available and not being …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Debian OSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Small Businesses
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 9.0 out of 10
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
IBM AIX
IBM AIX
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Score 9.2 out of 10
IBM AIX
IBM AIX
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Debian OSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(4 ratings)
9.6
(52 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Debian OSRed Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Likelihood to Recommend
Open Source
My favorite way to use Debian OS is to run shared, hosted, network applications for easy segmentation of apps so that when doing work on one you don't have to effect or take down others. I would not use it is for a daily use desktop style OS. For that I would stick to Windows, macOS, or a distribution of Linux that is already geared towards a daily use desktop OS.
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Red Hat
I guess to give it more context, my first job in the Linux ecosystem was in web hosting. And that was basically a Cintas shop and it was all run extremely lean and very bootstrappy do it on your own. You don't get any support. And for that environment, it was kind of just the way it is. It's very cutthroat. You have to move super fast. Once I moved over to the corporate side, every company I've worked with has been on rail. And the thing that really kind of makes it the best choice compared to using another operating system, another flavor of Linux and just kind of figuring out your own is the amount of support that Red Hat gives rail as far as extra tools like Satellite Insights and what's coming up now with Ansible and especially Ansible. Lightspeed, but also SLAs and stuff like that. Because yeah, I mean it was good learning in that first environment because there were no tickets, there was no support. It was figured out. But nowadays it's just nice to have an SLA agreement. I can just open a ticket. I say that that's something that does really well, but I also want to see it expanded, just more like vendor support at an enterprise level. I'm not sure yet what that would mean. I just have that every time we come up for renewal, I look at the price tag and it's like, what else can we do here? I like what Red Hat is doing just more.
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Pros
Open Source
  • The APT package manager is dead simple to use, and the APT repositories contain pretty much every package you can think of. If there's something missing from the standard repositories, there's a good chance a third-party repository can be added to fill the gap.
  • Debian OS releases are often considered, "boring". But that's a good thing! The Debian developers do not make changes for change's sake and this means new releases are very predictable and intended to cause as little drama as possible.
  • Debian is such a widely used and popular Linux distribution, that practically all Linux software vendors officially support it.
  • The Debian community is huge, especially when you consider Ubuntu is derived from it. If you need help with anything, you'll usually find it has been asked before and already has a resolution.
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Red Hat
  • For us, it's going to be the deployment and the patching. It does a good job because you can put your no reboot tags and things like that because working with production systems and so we don't want them just rebooting suddenly because they were patched in the Linux world. So the non-reboot tags and the operating system deployment is the biggest thing we find that saves time and that's the biggest thing that we like. The tools. The tools that save time.
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Cons
Open Source
  • The installation could include suggested partitioning schemes for those beginning users or those who have their first approach with Debian OS
  • offer encryption of the home partition or the entire hard drive by default
  • an improved visual package manager and if it could be native it would be very well received
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Red Hat
  • From an automation perspective. RHEL is really moving forward, but some of their ideas are still not ideas, but their implementations of it still feel half-baked, like the functionality's there, but it's not the kind of functionality that to me makes it a full-on solution with OpenShift in particular as we're bringing this in and we're getting more into containers because it's more important for the banking industry and other industries. Justice General, well you can do this by script and we don't have an interface for this and sort of things sort of like that. I'm trying to think if there's anything else that RHEL does that bothers me as a general rule.
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Likelihood to Renew
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Red Hat
We find RHEL to be a superior OS with stable operations and long life. It is also easier to use and fix then most other OS's.
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Usability
Open Source
Debian is one of the most well-thought-out, logical, and intuitive Linux operating systems you can use. Configuration, package management, file system layouts, etc, are all based on many years of usage, and it's very rare to find anything surprising or confusing in everyday usage. Package management and updates are handled by APT in such a way that once configured, you can almost guarantee your system will behave as expected for the lifetime of its service. Top-notch system integration provides all the tools you'd expect from a modern Linux system, with all the stability you demand from a demanding server OS.
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Red Hat
RHEL has most of the features that are required by an ERP solution. If you need any additional packages, RHEL has a great repository and a very easy package installation/upgrade process.
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Support Rating
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Red Hat
Red Hat support has really come a long way in the last 10 years, The general support is great, and the specialized product support teams are extremely knowledgeable about their specific products. Response time is good and you never need to escalate.
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Implementation Rating
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Red Hat
Don't be afraid of it, its easy to install and configure for the tasks needed.
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Alternatives Considered
Open Source
When compared to others, Debian runs smoother and faster and has great support for feature set with it. Even installing other supporting tools or IDEs for development work is pretty easier. With few simple commands and a good internet connection all the debian packages from the Internet can be easily fetched and installed on you systems
Read full review
Red Hat
The biggest thing about RHEL that makes it stand out for enterprise users is the support that we get from the vendor. Whereas with the other ones, you're basically left on your own. There's no official repo, there's no satellite for patching. You're very left on your own with the community.
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Return on Investment
Open Source
  • Due to it's low resource requirement, we are able to run more applications on less physical hardware
  • Because of it's versatility, we are able to learn Debian well and run our applications off of the same base operating system. That saves time and expertise requirements.
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Red Hat
  • Auditors are happy that we use an enterprise class distribution
  • Patch process is easy and fairly predictable
  • Information Security is fully satisfied with the speed of the fixing the errata and general state of the security patches, including the backporting process
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