Get Started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux
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- Explain what open source software is and why licences matter
- Describe what a Linux distribution is
- Place RHEL, CentOS Stream and Fedora in the Red Hat ecosystem
1 · Study
| 1 | What Is Linux? | manual p. 2 | to study |
Chapter summary and cheat sheet
Open source means the source code is available to anyone to use, study, change and share. Licences decide the rules: copyleft licences (GPL) require derived works to stay open, permissive licences (MIT, BSD, Apache) allow reuse in closed products.
A Linux distribution is a complete, installable operating system: the Linux kernel plus the user-space programs, libraries, installer and package management that make it usable.
The Red Hat family
| Project | Role |
|---|---|
| Fedora | Community distribution, fast-moving, where new technology lands first |
| CentOS Stream | Continuously delivered distribution that sits just ahead of the next RHEL minor release |
| RHEL | Enterprise, commercially supported, long life cycle (10 years per major version) |
Code flows upstream first: Fedora → CentOS Stream → RHEL. Red Hat contributes to the upstream projects, then stabilises and supports the result.
Practice tip: Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux are free rebuilds compatible with RHEL 9. They are ideal for this trainer's practice VM. A free Red Hat Developer Subscription also gives you real RHEL for up to 16 systems.
Key commands
cat /etc/redhat-release | Show which RHEL-family release is installed |
uname -r | Show the running kernel version |
hostnamectl | Show hostname, OS, kernel and hardware summary |