Color me Skeptical

SuSE and RHEL alternatives are fine if you're running free application stacks (e.g., you're just doing something like LAMP or doing XEN-type hosting). However, if you're running vendor-supported stacks (e.g., a NetBackup deployment), most vendors only support software running On SuSE and/or RHEL. Even if you're running a clone (e.g. Scientific Linux or CentOS) or free variant of either of those two OSes (OpenSuSE or Fedora), if you have problems running a vendor-supported package, you'll get next to zero support from the company that sold you the software.