I'm new to Linux. I just set up a web and email server with Red Hat 9. I had a few bumps along the way, but I got things figured out.

I'm not running any GUI stuff like XWindows or KDE, and I won't be on this machine.

I'm concerned about security. As such I'll have to either figure out how to update my kernel and how to discover and apply other security fixes that are out there, or I'll postpone that for a bit and just install the latest and greatest - fedora.

Into the future, will I find locating and downloading new fixes and otherwise securing fedora significantly easier than red hat 9? I'm concerned that the community and developer focus will be towards fedora, rather than red hat 9.

Or, is fedora more cutting edge at the moment, and perhaps less stable or secure?

Fedora is by its nature less stable, however, securing it should be just about the same as securing RH9. Remember, Fedora is a project sponsored mainly by Red Hat. It is their testing ground for software that will be going into the next versions of their products (The RHEL Suite). It is geared mainly toward the hobbyist and software developing community. Therefore, it has the latest versions of software whenever possible. It also has a much shorter life-cycle. Each version of Fedora will only be officially supported (if you can call it that) for a few months. When the next version comes out, the support for the previous version will stop (except for community support). The RHEL products have a much longer life-cycle (5 years +). They also include older stable releases of software. If you are looking for long term stability, then you are probably not interested in using Fedora as you will need to upgrade very often if you want a supported platform (i.e. one that has rpm's being proactively developed). However, if you are looking for a platform to learn, try out new software, and develop your Linux skills, Fedora is a very good place to start.

Hope this helps,

Forrest