I am trying to learn how to administer and
maintain my RHEL computer and it seems very
hard to me. It realy takes time and effort.
I would like to ask more experienced users
who are very familiar with both Red Hat and
Ubuntu. Is Ubuntu more user-friendly than RH?
Please, do not get me wrong. I would really like
to learn linux use all advantages that linux offer
but I also have limited time to devote to that.

are you trying to learn linux or are you trying to learn how to administer a linux server?

both are very easy to use and manage. i prefer RHE (CentOS) over Ubuntu for server and in fact is very much dislike the entire *buntu line.

if you are going to learn a debian based distro, then learn the pure Debian. if you are going to learn a RPM based distro then save your money and use CentOS as it is easier to download (do not have to find a torrent posted by some company) and it is RHE without the RH logos. other then that it is 100% RHE.

with CentOS you use YUM to manage your files for installing, updating, and removing.

with Debian you use apt-get.

for me apt-get is MUCH faster then YUM, but i have used both systems for server and desktop and hands down server wise CentOS is the way to go. for desktop pick your poison as none are really better then the other as in the end they are ALL Linux and it is just a matter of choice.

i am currently using Sabayon Linux:

http://sabayonlinux.org/

as i like the OOB experience were things just WORK on my workstation.

enjoy.

Both are just as easy, but you have to learn them both to know how to be an administrator on them In other words, both are operating systems that are built on top of a Linux kernel, maybe patched in a different fashion, but anyway. Their difference are the software packages selected to belong to the system, maybe some graphics like wallpapers etc., and most importantly for an admin: the configuration files and in some cases the tools. Debian's (Ubuntu is based on Debian, if you don't believe, check /etc/debian_version on Ubuntu) configuration differs slightly from that of RedHat's, but essentially they are the same. Both offer graphical configuration tools for most things nowadays, but of course it's good/needed to know how to work without X (because sometimes you just don't have it available). Note that on both the system wide config files are usually stored under /etc even if they're differently named in some cases (but not always!), and you can alter them directly. Both operating systems provide some scripts/front-ends to modify system settings, but every setting can (as far as I know) be made by altering the plain-text configuration files directly.

Both of them are equally user-friendly/hostile. I'd say the friendliness stops where command line begins, because after that you have to remember the command names or filenames - 'man' and 'apropos' of course help you, and after you remember what you're looking for, it's usually not difficult anymore. Get to know 'man' command and you're better off already..and buy a book about Unix/Linux system configuration (a Unix book does for most parts even if you use Ubuntu or RHEL, only the distro-specific front-ends aren't in the "general" books), so you have something to read when you can't remember.

Best practise is to try and miss, then fix and learn. And visit RedHat's and Debian's sites and read their admin docs; they tell you more about the distro-specific tools like 'dpkg-something' on Debian.

Thanks for response. Currently I try to learn linux. In the future
if I succeed in this, I will try to learn how to build and
administer a linux server. As I said, linux seems very difficult
to me now. I have tried to install some software like yum,
wine, plug-ins for my firefox/mozilla brouser but failed
almost everywhere - I posted separate threads where I describe my problems. It seems, I was able to install yum on RHEL 4 linux
successfully after puting huuuuuge efforts and that's about it.
I have been struggling with "wine" and pluging for quite a time
with no result. Please do not get me wrong - but it takes me seconds in
windows to solve similar tasks and indefinite time in linux.
That's why I started to look for an alternative linux distribution.
Someone told me that Ubuntu is much more user-friendly than RHEL.

Thanks

Here are some good reads:

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm (Comparison of Linux vs Windows)
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz (Excellent Linus tutorial/ref online book)
http://www.tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/ (Bash aka cmd line programming)

For a new-to-Linux user, the Ubuntu range is often recommended.
RHE / Centos is more industrial oriented. May be a bit heavy for you to start with.
RH also produces the Fedora series, which may be more to your liking.

I've used RH, CentOS, Fedora an Ubuntu (amongst others), and to be perfectly honest, I can't see why people describe Ubuntu as abny easier to use than the RH derivatives. Aside from the installation being a bit simpler (read that as less flexible), once it's up and running, the operation is very similar.

I'f you've done the installation of RH and have played with it a bit, you'll be gong backwards (maybe only a little bit) by changing to any different distro

I would try a bunch of distros and see which one you think is the most user-friendly

Learning linux is like driving in a new town. You'll get lost anytime you try to go somewhere... Eventually you'll get lost in every direction a few times and then one day BAM. It all clicks and you'll start to be able to go places without getting lost.

Be patient. Take good notes and keep linuxquestions.org handy at all times! As well as www.google.com/linux

i would say that buntu is easiest with a desktop configuaration
(so far its the only distro that has detected my wifi card and automaticlly got it working)
yes i can download and compile the driver for any other distro but then i have to recompile the fscking kernel modules every time a new kernel relece comes out (wich with most distros ATM seems to be allmost every month...)


for a server enviroment RHEL (and its derivs (centOS and white flag )) are probabbly better,

if you want the best of both worlds check out opensuse... not quite as easy as buntu to set up but once its running it is one of teh easiest and smoothist to use (would defintly choose for a server/workstation multi user enviroment where the adverage user just needs to use the thing without knowing how it works!)