SUSE Linux Enterprise
Shares rank 48 of 63 Linux distributions by recommenders
Established commercial enterprise Linux that people recommend as a Red Hat alternative for secure, high-quality deployments. Main caveat: it is a paid commercial option.
Established commercial enterprise Linux that people recommend as a Red Hat alternative for secure, high-quality deployments. Main caveat: it is a paid commercial option.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Enterprise-grade alternative to RHEL
“But from my experience for enterprise there is RHEL, Suse and maybe Ubuntu Pro.”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “EQT eyes potential $6B sale of Linux pioneer SUSE, sources say” “Ubuntu pro, rhel and suse too, but they are commercial options”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Blog ran on Ubuntu 16.04 for 10 years. I migrated it to FreeBSD” “Suse has filled that niche pretty well also.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly” Capable of high quality and security
“They certainly have the operational capability to maintain the quality standards of Red Hat.”
Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Red Hat being phased out of existence?” “I think that SUSE and RH can definitely work well in a fairly secure setting as needed.”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “The EU Open Source Strategy”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Commercial option, not free software
“Ubuntu pro, rhel and suse too, but they are commercial options”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “Blog ran on Ubuntu 16.04 for 10 years. I migrated it to FreeBSD”
Other Linux distributions people recommend
The four most recommended other Linux distributions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu | 560 | 493 | 53% | 12 | 10 yrs116 owners | — |
| Debian | 552 | 191 | 74% | 13 | 10 yrs62 owners | Approved |
| NixOS | 454 | 112 | 80% | 13 | 2 yrs69 owners | Approved |
| Fedora Linux | 437 | 131 | 77% | 12 | 2 yrs72 owners | Approved |
| SUSE Linux EnterpriseThis page | 7 | 3 | 70% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“They certainly have the operational capability to maintain the quality standards of Red Hat.”
“didn't need an IBM for that”
“Given its history and performance its quite likely to get sold”
“Suse has filled that niche pretty well also.”
“I think that SUSE and RH can definitely work well in a fairly secure setting as needed.”
“Ubuntu pro, rhel and suse too, but they are commercial options”
“it was the very first enterprise Linux and it already has MDM tooling”
“SuSE is used more heavily than any of them - as others have said, they're used more or less everywhere where SAP is to be found”
“But from my experience for enterprise there is RHEL, Suse and maybe Ubuntu Pro.”
“later releases broke other earlier things I care about”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.