[N3WBI3]

Right now Dell only sells RedHat Linux with there servers (aside from Windows). I tend to advise people against buying RedHat software from dell and go right to RedHat because the support is a little less of a pain

Just like with windows Dells first questions are always about Drivers and Upgrades, RedHat tackles the problem first and if an upgrade is required then they will then recommend it. But I'm just some guy out there in cyberspace so the fact I would recommend this path may not mean RedHat does not make some bucks from people buying through Dell..

RedHat is right now the #1 vendor of Linux in the world in terms of dollars. Novell, due to their purchase of Suse, is a measurably distant number two. But Novell has been doing some good things with Suse so there should be a tightening in the race over the next few years..

[Salo]

Dell's support sucks.

I once called in a problem about a PC that would not power up, and the Apu on Duty requested I flash up the BIOS. Dell's response is always "your bios is out of date." I asked him how to do that when the PC would not power up, and he had to escalate the call. I guess the answer wasn't in the script.

[Salo]

FYI, Dell servers used to ship with Netware as an option - I haven't ordered a server with an os since we switched over to freebsd and linux, but I think think that option is still available. The Dell/Novell relationship goes way back, as does the compaq (now hp) and Novell relationship.

[softwarecreator]

Thanks for the info, N3WBI3.  I didn't realize that Suse was making such great strides.  It's a pretty impressive feat considering how popular Red Hat is and the mind-boggling amount of different Linux versions there are.