One of the notable versions of a Linux server platform is Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Linux has been a major player since 1993 starting as desktop version of Linux. In 2003, Red Hat Linux was changed to Red Hat Enterprise Linux which included more versions, including multiple server variants.
A typical Linux package is comprised of a Linux kernel, possibly a GUI with window manager and a desktop environment, and other additional software. The Linux kernel is based off the Unix kernel and system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs. The Linux kernel was not developed until 1991 and is written in a version of the C programming language supported by GNU Compiler Collection. Version 3.0 of the Linux Kernel released on 2011, with no major changes initially from past versions but was built for the future.
With the Linux kernel being open-source, security is a much criticized topic in relation to the Linux kernel, because a large number of bugs in the kernel can be potential security flaws, whether they allow privilege escalation or create denial-of-service attacks. Over the years, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has had numerous such flaws that were found and fixed in Red Hat’s version of the Linux kernel. New security features are continuously implemented to address computer insecurity issues in the Linux kernel. Although the creator of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds says he personally consider security bugs to be just 'normal bugs'.
The current version Red Hat Enterprise Linux has evolved from its predecessors with major hardware advances, reducing system power consumption, taking advantage of hardware with greater numbers of processing and memory resources, and withstanding hardware failures better.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is said to deliver one of the best operating system for data centers over its other Linux competitors. Advances in system efficiency have leaded to allowing for larger systems with more CPU sockets and cores, more memory, and larger file systems. Some of the issues effect other server operating environments. These features allow for better hardware features such as reliability, availability, serviceability capabilities, preventing systems hardware failures that would cause a system to crash.