The following table compares The Fedora Project, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and My Ideal Distribution, which doesn't seem to exist. It is stolen from http://fedora.redhat.com/about/rhel.html, which is designed to show the differences between Red Hat's two products.
| The Fedora Project | My Ideal Distribution | Red Hat Enterprise Linux | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is it? | Open Source Project | Open Source Project | Commercial Product, based on Open Source |
| Developed by | Developer Community | Developer Community | Red Hat |
| Users | Early adopters, enthusiasts, developers | .org/.edu production environments, small business, IT professionals | Mainstream production environments |
| Licensing | Open source | Open source | Open source |
| Downloads | Source and binaries | Source and binaries | Source only, or binaries with per-system maintenance/support contract |
| Delivery | Download or third-party CDs | Download or box product from Red Hat and partners | Download or box product from Red Hat and partners |
| Release Interval | 4-6 months | 12-18 months | 12-18 months |
| Support Options from Red Hat | None | A few low cost options | Many |
| Packages Included | Wide range | Carefully-selected list (as much as the current RHL set can be said to be "carefully selected") | Carefully-selected list (only mature/supportable/recommended packages) |
| Packages Versions | Always latest and greatest | Balance of maturity and features | Best balance of maturity and features |
| Updates | Frequent feature updates and package version upgrades | Mostly bugfixes and driver updates, rare package version upgrades | Bugfixes and driver updates only, backported to released package versions |
| Update Lifetime | 2-3 months after next release | 12-18 months after next release | At least 5 years |
| Update Source | Developer Community | Red Hat | Red Hat |
| Features Added | Kept closer to upstream projects | Stable versions of software (in real terms, not version number terms) | Additional features and enhancements from Red Hat |
| ISV Certifications | None | None | Many (e.g. Oracle,VERITAS, BEA, CA, IBM) |
| Hardware Certifications | None | None | Many (e.g. Dell, HP, IBM) |
| Standards Certifications | None | None | Many |
| Testers | Developer Community | Developer Community, Red Hat QA, Beta Testers | Red Hat QA, Red Hat Partners, and Beta Testers |
| Benchmarks, Performance Testing | By community | Don't care | By Red Hat QA, ISV/IHV partners, and industry analysts |
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