When comparing Parabola GNU/Linux-libre vs Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Slant community recommends Parabola GNU/Linux-libre for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for misanthropes?” Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is ranked 46th while Red Hat Enterprise Linux is ranked 115th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF
Pro Option to use OpenRC or Systemd
Parabola has an OpenRC edition and a Systemd edition, so users can choose which init system they want.
Pro All the benefits of Arch Linux, only 100% certified free software
Pro Very Secure
Pro Has its own repos
Parabola has its own repos (which are almost as large as Arch Linux) and the IceCat browser is included.
Pro Can be migrated from Arch Linux without a CD/USB
Pro Based on Arch Linux
Pro Each version is supported for a really long time
Each released version of RHEL is supported for around ten years by Red Hat with constant bug fixes and security updates.
Pro Greatly favours stability over anything else
RHEL favours stability over being up-to date. For this reason it ships with packages that may be up to two years behind in order to ensure stability over everything else.
Using older versions for packages means that they have been thoroughly tested and used in production for quite some time, and are ensured to play well with each-other.
This strategy has paid off quite a lot in the past. One example is the Heartbleed bug which left RHEL unaffected since it was using a two-year old OpenSSL library which did not have the bug.
Pro Rapid security updates
Pro Built-in disaster recovery solutions through clusters
RHEL has several built-in solutions for disaster recovery. For example, it comes with pacemaker which can be configured to manage multi-site and and stretch clusters across multiple geographical locations for disaster recovery and scalability. It can also be configured to trigger notifications when the status of a managed cluster changes by using enhanced pacemaker alerts.
Pro Applications don't have to take into account potentially breaking changes in libraries
Since RHEL backports all updates and bug fixes to older versions in order to maintain package compatibility across releases, applications hosted on Red Hat Linux don't have to worry about potential breaking changes in libraries they use, especially language libraries.
Pro Best support as far as hardware goes
This distro is by far the one with the largest number of certified server-class hardware.
Pro Built-in support for containers
Comes with built-in management tools for containers (Atomic CLI, Cockpit) and a container runtime in the form of Docker engine.
Cons
Con Won't work out-of-the-box on the most PC's
Almost all PCs need non-free drivers but Parabola has none to offer.
Con Not compatible with AUR
Unlike other Arch-based distros, this free distro doesn't support AUR.
Con Same cons that apply to Arch Linux
Con Small repositories
Since Parabola is a completely free distro, there is no non-free software available and the community repositories are small compared to the AUR.
Con Incompetent developers
They only care about removing "non-free" software, rather than making a properly working OS.
Con Serves no purpose
It's just Arch without non-free software and is basically a niche OS with few users.
Con Not really free
People have to pay hundreds to maintain this distro.
Con You need to buy a license
RHEL is a commercial Linux distributions and it's rather expensive as well, the cheapest license costs $349.
