>> >> i just don't want to teach off of 5.3, only to find out later that >> they've been keeping up to date and 5.5 would have been a more >> appropriate choice. thanks for any tips. > > On a certain level there really isn't much difference from a general > admin POV -- it does not really make sense to go into a certain level of > detail (like specific version numbers). Basic functionallity is not > going to change from point version to point version. > There is a limited amount of truth to this - but it depends on the topic being taught. Redhat usually adds functionality to the point releases as they go - a few examples in the current 5.X release cycle being KVM virtualisation, postgres-8.4 and the ext4 filesystem..... The X part of 5.X refers to a point in time of Redhat... but that really is a point in time and in terms of maintaining a system there is only RHEL5... there really is no point installing 5.3 when you should keep up to date on updates and particularly depending on the topic to be taught as well. James