[clug] RHEL - Options for a dev environment? [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Roppola, Antti - BRS]

Hi all,
 
We're going to be moving our web applications environment to RHEL.
 
I want to run up some test/dev environments (for systems and appliction
developers) and would
like to hear your thoughts on the three options I am considering (and
any other options I should add).
We are looking at a shared dev sandbox and some VM images for people's
laptops. Some sort of
of virtualisation might be a good option for testing base system
changes.
 
RedHat Desktop (workstation option)
A lot cheaper than RHEL and thus more palatable for many developer
instances that RHEL itself. Should
be a close match for RHEL as far as libc and the like are concerned. The
workstation edition appears to
come with Apache and the like (less clear on what is *not* included).
While it costs (per system), the price
isn't too bad and we get some level of support and updates.
 
Centos
On paper, it should be a good match for RHEL. Is free, but we'd not have
any support options (not that
we've really ever needed them for sandbox systems in the past). I'd
assume the updates would be a good
match for RHEL too.
 
Fedora
Somewhat like Redhat Desktop, but free and a bit more removed. Probably
the least certain in terms
of reliably replicating our production environment, but still likely to
be pretty close. I assume Fedora
wouuld keep its own update schedule.
 
I have my opinion on what we should chose, but I won't colour the
conclusions by voicing them yet.
 
Any other bright ideas on maintaining an open dev environment without
creating a configuration consistency
headache would be of interest too.
 
Thanks,
 
Antti

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