{"slug": "red-hat-enterprise-linux", "name": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 2.058, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-11-30", "latest": "2026-10-10", "why": "RedHat backports security fixes into the original code, so open source package updates don\u2019t break your application", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "RedHat backports security fixes into the original code, so open source package updates don\u2019t break your application", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["RHEL", "Red Hat Enterprise Linux"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 784657552, "item_id": 49041097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041097", "by": "KolenCh", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "settled with RHEL", "excerpt": "I used to distro-hop a lot and in recent years settled with RHEL. The key change over the years is how fragile the supply chain becomes, so while distro like Arch Linux is a great learning experience, I just want to put a layer of maintainers who have higher stake than others between me and the world. (RHEL has a free tier for developers limited to 16 instances.)", "context": "former distro-hopper", "use_case": "daily driver Linux distro", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}, {"id": 743338240, "item_id": 46458640, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46458640", "by": "mlacks", "date": "2026-01-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I chose redhat because its what I've been using for over a decade at work and feels like home.", "excerpt": "I moved to linux this month for good once i realized I no longer needed microsft services (Excel for example \"runs on Mac\" but is missing important features). I chose redhat because its what I've been using for over a decade at work and feels like home. Only thing I miss is Capcut as that workflow was pretty ironed out. Getting the hang of KDENlive", "context": "uses Red Hat at work for over a decade", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}, {"id": 737634929, "item_id": 46102183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46102183", "by": "andrehacker", "date": "2025-11-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "RedHat backports security fixes into the original code, so open source package updates don\u2019t break your application", "excerpt": "As much as I love FreeBSD, the release schedule is a real challenge in production: each point release is only supported for about three months. Since every release includes all ports and packages, you end up having to recertify your main application constantly. Compare this to RedHat: yes, a paid subscription is expensive, but RedHat backports security fixes into the original code, so open source package updates don\u2019", "context": "runs production deployments", "use_case": "production deployments", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 800542323, "item_id": 50033895, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033895", "by": "newsoftheday", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the issue you described has happened to me on:", "excerpt": "> Too many times even in the past I do an update the distro and then something stops working and then I have to spend a day fixing. On Ubuntu starting in 2006 and Kubuntu the last several years, what you're describing doesn't and hasn't happened to me. When I've tried other distros over the years, the issue you described has happened to me on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Fedora SuSE Debian (yes, even Debian but it was w", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}]}], "who": [{"by": "dada216", "context": "Red Hat partner", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50016686", "date": "2026-10-09"}, {"by": "KolenCh", "context": "former distro-hopper", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041097", "date": "2026-07-24"}, {"by": "mlacks", "context": "uses Red Hat at work for over a decade", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46458640", "date": "2026-01-01"}, {"by": "andrehacker", "context": "runs production deployments", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46102183", "date": "2025-11-30"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["vms for experiments", "daily driver linux distro", "supported enterprise os", "desktop os", "production deployments"], "compared": [{"slug": "debian", "name": "Debian", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "macos", "name": "macOS", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "fedora", "name": "Fedora", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ubuntu", "name": "Ubuntu", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49998801", "title": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49985548", "title": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49029345", "title": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47648452", "title": "Ubuntu now requires more RAM than Windows 11", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46457770", "title": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46100892", "title": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"compare": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 800542323, "item_id": 50033895, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50033895", "by": "newsoftheday", "date": "2026-10-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the issue you described has happened to me on:", "excerpt": "> Too many times even in the past I do an update the distro and then something stops working and then I have to spend a day fixing. On Ubuntu starting in 2006 and Kubuntu the last several years, what you're describing doesn't and hasn't happened to me. When I've tried other distros over the years, the issue you described has happened to me on: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Fedora SuSE Debian (yes, even Debian but it was w", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload"}, {"id": 800266978, "item_id": 50016686, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50016686", "by": "dada216", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "it runs a rhel (I have them for free as a partner)", "excerpt": "Hosted in a cloud: a VPN Lowendtalk Is an amazing community to get offers for those. At home: truenas and gitlab. At home, for work: I have an older HP workstation with an older Xeon with 24 physical cores and it runs a rhel (I have them for free as a partner) and I use it to run VMs for experiments and replicating infras, K8S, Windows AD stuff, etc.", "context": "Red Hat partner", "use_case": "VMs for experiments", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?"}, {"id": 784657552, "item_id": 49041097, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49041097", "by": "KolenCh", "date": "2026-07-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "settled with RHEL", "excerpt": "I used to distro-hop a lot and in recent years settled with RHEL. The key change over the years is how fragile the supply chain becomes, so while distro like Arch Linux is a great learning experience, I just want to put a layer of maintainers who have higher stake than others between me and the world. (RHEL has a free tier for developers limited to 16 instances.)", "context": "former distro-hopper", "use_case": "daily driver Linux distro", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Linux distro do you daily drive?"}, {"id": 762430338, "item_id": 47651896, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47651896", "by": "hnarn", "date": "2026-04-05", "stance": "compare", "quote": "for any serious shop willing to spend money on support I\u2019d probably go with RHEL anyway", "excerpt": "I switched to Debian a long time ago for both desktops and servers. For me personally I don\u2019t see what value prop Ubuntu even has anymore, apart from maybe having ZFS in the kernel. Support maybe? I\u2019ve never used it personally so I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s any good, but for any serious shop willing to spend money on support I\u2019d probably go with RHEL anyway.", "context": "", "use_case": "supported enterprise OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ubuntu now requires more RAM than Windows 11"}, {"id": 743338240, "item_id": 46458640, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46458640", "by": "mlacks", "date": "2026-01-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I chose redhat because its what I've been using for over a decade at work and feels like home.", "excerpt": "I moved to linux this month for good once i realized I no longer needed microsft services (Excel for example \"runs on Mac\" but is missing important features). I chose redhat because its what I've been using for over a decade at work and feels like home. Only thing I miss is Capcut as that workflow was pretty ironed out. Getting the hang of KDENlive", "context": "uses Red Hat at work for over a decade", "use_case": "desktop OS", "switched_from": "macOS", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}, {"id": 737634929, "item_id": 46102183, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46102183", "by": "andrehacker", "date": "2025-11-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "RedHat backports security fixes into the original code, so open source package updates don\u2019t break your application", "excerpt": "As much as I love FreeBSD, the release schedule is a real challenge in production: each point release is only supported for about three months. Since every release includes all ports and packages, you end up having to recertify your main application constantly. Compare this to RedHat: yes, a paid subscription is expensive, but RedHat backports security fixes into the original code, so open source package updates don\u2019", "context": "runs production deployments", "use_case": "production deployments", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Love Letter to FreeBSD"}]}