Hi there,

I newly buy a laptop with windows 8.1. I want to install Red Hat on virtual box and prepare for exam. Would you please tell me your suggestion? which version of Red Hat I should install and notes for contemplating?

thanks

Hello gkhazan,

I would definitely go with a version of CentOS in your case. The reason being that it is essentially Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) without any of the branding and proprietary tools. If you were to buy an actual version of Red Hat it would be a bit expensive. CentOS is also officially endorsed by Red Hat. As far as which version, that should depend on your test. Is your test on a specific release of RHEL? If so just get the CentOS equivelent (i.e. RHEL 7 get CentOS 7). Doing this will minimize any difference between what you are reading and what you are seeing. If no specific version is listed and it's a generic test I personally recommend going with CentOS 6. It has been around longer and so has more packages under it's belt. The overhead on it seems to be less than 7 also.

Note: There have been some issues with 64 bit guests on some machines. Make sure virtualization is turned on in BIOS and hypervisor is off in order to run 64bit guests on Virtualbox. To be safe you could just install the 32bit version. It probably won't make a difference for your studies.

Let me know if you have more questions.

FIRST !!!!!!
and the VERY FIRST THING TO DO

is check on the redhat site if your laptop is redhat certified

RHEL is normally installed to a SERVER with NO GUI - No desktop manager
just a text ONLY terminal

then secondly it is used in the OFFICE
on Desktop machines

and very lastly and NEVER INTENDED to be used
laptops

most laptops will run RHEL ? mostly ? well ? most of the time ?
-- mostly ??? --

but NOT ALL LAPTOPS will run RHEL !!!!!!

common issues are
no wifi - a server dose not need it so it is not well supported

the "built in 3d chips" on the mobo
again
servers do NOT use that type of hardware , so there is not much support

mousepads might not work
again a server with no gui dose not need this
and a desktop with a real mouse dose not need this
so they might not work

so

https://access.redhat.com/search/bro...ied-hardware#?

https://access.redhat.com/support/co...stomerService/

Hello again gkhazan,

Being that you'll be installing in Virtualbox if something doesn't work it shouldn't be a big deal. Wifi probably won't matter since it will probably be a simple bridge network, which Virtualbox handles well. I haven't had the GUI fail on laptops in a long time.

And I PROMISE!!! I WILL STAKE LARGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY ON IT!! YOUR MOUSE PAD WILL WORK!!

Give it a try and if it doesn't work, worst case is you may have to try a different release or a different distro. If there is only moderate success you may have to put a little elbow grease into making it work. It would be a great learning experience.