hi all,im new here and this is my first post so please bear with me and if i did anything wrong please tell me...

I am asking this because i just joined RHCE course recently.so to study i have to download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux to study the os.but since i am jobless and i cant afford to buy that and i dont want to download the evaluation version.i heard that centos and fedora are sumwat similar to redhat enterprise linux and are free[correct me if i am wrong].so what should i download to study the os?i meam if they are somewhat or almost same i could use the free version and later i could buy the Red Hat Enterprise Linux when i gat a job.thanks for ur replies..take care

I havent used any RedHat derivatives but for what I hear CentOS follows RedHat really close, so maybe you can try that or do a dual boot installation with the two of them and try them both.

Good luck to you.

thanks for ur quick reply,but sorry i need a little more information....

also did i post it in the wrong section?if so mods can u please move it to the linux certifications or any other appopriate section?i am confused...

Welcome to LQ.
At first, please don't use text-/SMS-speak, this is not appreciated here.
I would recommend to use CentOS, it is RHEL recompiled without the Red Hat branding. Other than the missing branding it is 100% compatible, so it would be the best to learn for the certification.

Fedora is used as a testbed for RHEL, to work out the bugs in new versions of software before they're implemented in RHEL. As a result, the overall layout of Fedora and the usage of the package management system will be the same as RHEL, however Fedora will be more unstable and the look and feel will probably be very different. CentOS would provide a better 1:1 comparison with RHEL.

Since fedora changed to systemd I wouldn't recommend it to learn for RHCE, the package management may be the same, but the startup system is completely different.

thank all...will a centos live cd will do the job,i will be using it along win 7 32 bit dual boot

Live cds are mostly for demoing distros. If you plan to make/test any changes to the OS, you'll need a persistent install, otherwise anything you modify will be lost the next time you reboot. I can't imagine truly "getting to know" any OS without being able to make persistent changes to it.

If you don't want to bother with partitioning and bootloaders I would recommend to install Virtualbox and install CentOS into a virtual machine. This way you can also use the snapshot feature to go back to a known good state of the OS, if something weird happens.

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Thanks for the answers.since im a newbie i just want familiarise with redhat or centOS for initial 5 days.so i guess the live cd will be enough?coz its smaller than the centos os and after some days i will switch from live cd to os.but can i install the centOS 6.0 live cd to my hard disk?if so that will save some time downloading the o.s.i found some ways to install the 5.0 version but i am completely clueless abt installing the 6.0 version.

I also recommend TobiSGD's suggestion. Download and install VirtualBox (its free) on your windows 7 install, and then install CentOS onto a virtual machine, and run it form within windows.
This will also make things easier with other hurdles along the way, that whilst you are learning if you lose your network connection with the CentOS install, you wont be able to look up how to get it back, etc.

Can i install centOS live cd in to virtual machine.im opting the live cd because my internet speeds are too slow

I installed the live cd in my pendrive,booted and is looking good,so will it have the 'save' function as O.S since its installed in the pendrive and not the cd?

Depends on how you installed it. If you made a real install then yes, if you used unetbootin or something similar then no.

You should forget about the live CD and get the CentOS installation DVD or CDs. Don't try using a pen drive either. You're just not going to get a real feel for Linux that way.