Need advice on Linux distro to use to build for RHEL

Fedora is a good choice, except for the fact that they tend to put out a new distro about every 6 months, and they only tend to support each release for 13 months. So, unless your fine with having to reinstall every year, Centos might be a better choice long term

coolaquarian wrote:

Hello,

My Customer uses RHEL for server environment.
Which free Linux distribution would serve best for development and code compilation/build targeted to directly run on RHEL servers?
I would be mostly developing on c/c++, Java and shell scripting.
I am currently considering CentOS or Fedora. Kindly advise.

Thank you.

When you say development and code compilation, almost any open source linux system would fit the bill. For developing code specifically for redhat, then you will want to development packages that install/compile under the rpm or yum package manager. To be more technical, lots of open software are packaged in a zip file or, in the linux term, a tarball. These tarballs have the source code that allows a linux system to build and install the package. All linux systems can use these. That could be an option.

The major development languages used in linux are python, php, perl, java and c++ with support for other languages. Python is the big one, yet c++ is more advanced. If you are building from scratch you might want to take a look at these. You also want to take a look at the programming languages that redhat uses. Whatever redhat uses to develop and make software available for their users I would use.

If you are building a tarball, then it really does not matter what linux system you use. However, if you want to build something specific for redhat then definitely use redhat derivatives like CentOS or Fedora. Fedora is promoted by redhat and was built to let the community test out any new features redhat plans to implement into its mainstream system. CentOS is a complete open source rewrite of redhat but one not promoted by them. Either one will fit the bill. You could also use openSUSE which also uses the rpm package manager. It has been known to really do well in the development departed especially when it comes to building other Linux distros.

For the longrun, I agree to use CentOS as it has a longer support cycle then Fedora. Packages build for an earlier release of Fedora may not work for a later release. It all comes down to preferences though.

Just curious, why not develop programs for redhat users on a redhat machine? If the customers you support use redhat, then use redhat. You can use the free versions to test prototypes but I would try to stick with the same platform my customers are using. Will redhat allow you to develop packages for their platform while using a free version?