“Red Hat is not only one of the oldest and best known Linux
distributions, but is probably the one that has the most traction
in the business community thanks to smart people, clever marketing,
a steady stream of advertisements, and the introduction of some of
the concepts that people take for granted in the commercial Linux
space. Many Linux distributions, such as Red Hat, SUSE,
Mandrakelinux, and even the ill-fated Caldera Linux distribution,
have offered server and desktop products for years, but Red Hat was
the first to make a lot of noise about ‘Linux for the Enterprise,’
pioneering the label, if not the concept.“Enterprise Linux vendors have to walk the tightrope between
providing stable and up-to-date versions of the software packages
required in enterprise deployments. Stability is an interesting
notion in the Open Source world. On the one hand, you have the
legions of dedicated and capable developers who are continually
identifying and fixing problems in Open Source software…”