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Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs Windows 10 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers high ROI with cost savings, improved efficiency, strong support, and enhanced stability for enterprises.
Sentiment score
3.6
Windows 10 offers stability, compatibility, and security, achieving break-even in 18 months, with mixed views on financial impact.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux has saved us time and increased productivity.
Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux can yield resource savings of 200 percent to 300 percent compared to Windows Server instances.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.0
RHEL support is highly rated for its knowledgeable team, timely responses, and robust problem-solving, despite occasional delays.
Sentiment score
6.4
Users often use online resources and third-party services for Windows 10 issues, with mixed satisfaction levels overall.
They respond immediately based on the SLA level.
The technical support is excellent.
They promptly addressed my concerns regarding permission issues when I contacted them.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Red Hat Enterprise Linux excels in scalability, managing diverse environments and workloads efficiently with seamless integration and reliable performance.
Sentiment score
8.3
Windows 10 is highly scalable, supporting efficient growth and adaptation across varying company sizes, meeting diverse industry needs.
There are no issues with scalability when it comes to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Each computer has at least 24 to 72 CPUs in it, and everything runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Rocky.
I would rate the scalability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as nine out of ten, indicating it scales well with our needs.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
RHEL is highly stable and reliable, favored for business-critical applications due to long uptimes and minimal issues.
Sentiment score
6.7
Windows 10 is generally stable and reliable, though users experience infrequent issues; regular updates are essential for best performance.
It works consistently with minimal downtime and very few bugs or glitches.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers great stability and performance compared to other operating systems.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is very stable.
 

Room For Improvement

RHEL users desire improvements in documentation, usability, security, automation, compatibility, and support to enhance overall user experience.
Windows 10 updates need to focus on stability, user-friendliness, performance optimization, security, better integration, and streamlined licensing.
Addressing these limitations would significantly enhance the operating system's flexibility and efficiency.
The built-in security features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux were insufficient for our needs, necessitating the implementation of supplementary security measures.
By providing pre-installed, native automation tools within the operating system, Red Hat would streamline processes and improve user efficiency.
 

Setup Cost

Red Hat Enterprise Linux's pricing is justified by its support and features, yet smaller companies consider alternatives for cost savings.
Enterprise buyers find Windows 10 licensing expensive, favor resellers for cost-effectiveness, and desire pricing improvements amid free alternatives.
It may be considered expensive compared to other solutions like CentOS or Ubuntu, which offer some of the same features without additional costs.
Its pricing has room for improvement because it's more expensive in the local market due to purchasing power parity in India.
Windows Servers base their cost on the number of users and have high licensing fees, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers free versions alongside its paid, supported versions.
 

Valuable Features

Red Hat Enterprise Linux excels in stability, security, and usability with strong automation tools and support, ideal for diverse infrastructures.
Windows 10 is valued for its user-friendly interface, seamless integration, security, multitasking, and compatibility, making it a trusted choice.
It also has strong security features, is OIS and FIPS certified, and has built-in Linux security configurations.
The security features are the most valuable.
The most valuable feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is its command-line capabilities, which allow you to execute large operations quickly.
Windows 11 brings some AI features for Microsoft Copilot, which probably weren't as integrated into the previous version.
 

Categories and Ranking

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (R...
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
263
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Windows 10
Ranking in Operating Systems (OS) for Business
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
270
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Operating Systems (OS) for Business category, the mindshare of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is 11.8%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Windows 10 is 3.7%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Operating Systems (OS) for Business
 

Featured Reviews

Bruce Lundberg - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable patch management, high uptime, and incredible knowledge base
In terms of security, it does a lot of things that most people still turn off. SELinux is turned on by default. They have pretty good firewall rules in their defaults. The audit rules always take tweaking, but, overall, it comes out of the box not too bad. I used to write scripts to harden them from there. There are multiple ways to provision and patch. You have everything from local repositories to doing it by hand. Their knowledge base is incredible. There is so much information out there. It has never taken me longer than 30 minutes to find an answer to anything, even very tough ones. One company I worked for was a security company, and we did a lot of patching on everything. It was designed around security and email hosting, and uptime was pretty much whatever we wanted it to be. I have had a couple of times when the uptime was bad, but it was caused by a third-party solution. In fact, the Norton antivirus was definitely the worst. Red Hat had nothing to do with it.
Akos Szirmai - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy installation and the initial setup time is reasonable
Stability can be an issue. I have to restart it every two days. And the boot time is quite long. My laptop's old, has no SSD, and is just a traditional Winchester. Had desktops with Windows 11 and SSDs, much better performance. But hardware limitations on my current laptop lead to stability and response issues. It's more like the whole reinstall every two years thing. It makes cleaning a pain. Performance improves significantly after a fresh install, then slowly deteriorates as I add more programs. But my biggest concern with Windows 10 is actually bigger than my situation. I'm replacing my laptop anyway, but I read that Windows 10 support ends in a year or so. And with hardware limitations, many other computers won't run Windows 11. So it's not just me. A lot of people with decent, still-working Windows 10 machines will lose support and be unable to switch to 11. This will be a significant problem for individuals and institutions. Large companies with thousands of computers don't replace them every three years, and they might face issues with many computers unable to run Windows 11 and lacking support for 10.
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Comparison Review

it_user281973 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 24, 2017
It's improved our company's system environments that run Oracle databases.
Red Hat is mission critical to our environment Red Hat has improved the mission critical environments running Oracle databases, while CentOS has improved our web environment and MySQL. Oracle and SAP Environment and all HPC environments. 10 years No issues Very stable i don´t find any problem…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which would you choose - RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) or CentOS?
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is fantastic. It is an inexpensive solution that has excellent security, performance, and stability, and also lots of features. I specifically like that the solution has fe...
What do you like most about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
It is open source. We can customize it as per our requirements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)?
I do not have any insights, but I know why the prices went up. At the time, it made sense. I do not know what the pricing is like now. Previously, the pricing model was advantageous as it allowed u...
What needs improvement with Windows 10?
Windows versions before 2016 had a lot of stability problems. When cybersecurity teams tested these devices or operating systems, we found many vulnerabilities to exploit. That's why if I could mak...
What is your primary use case for Windows 10?
We use the solution as an operating system.
 

Also Known As

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, RHEL
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Travel Channel, Mohawk Industries, Hilti, Molecular Health, Exolgan, Hotelplan Group, Emory University, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina, HCA Healthcare, Paychex, UPS, Intermountain Healthcare, Brinker International, TransUnion, Union Bank, CA Technologies
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Find out what your peers are saying about Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) vs. Windows 10 and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.