Difference between installing from Apache vs Hortonworks?

[#1]

Is there a difference between installing ambari via the apache docs vs Hortonworks docs?

I assume that the end result is exactly the same since Hortonworks labels the distribution in the docs as "Apache" and the repo they instruct to add uses apache.org as the package URL:

[root@HW001 ~]# yum info ambari-server
Installed Packages
Name        : ambari-server
Arch        : x86_64
Version     : 2.7.3.0
Release     : 139
Size        : 418 M
Repo        : installed
From repo   : ambari-2.7.3.0
Summary     : Ambari Server
URL         : http://www.apache.org
License     : (c) Apache Software Foundation
Description : Maven Recipe: RPM Package.

However, the installation instructions that the ambari project site links to are different and only involve building from source via maven (and seem to nowhere mention installation options via package manager), so gives me pause as to whether these are exactly the same.

Could anyone with more experience here explain this a bit more to me? Is the underlying code any different when getting the same ambari version from Hortonworks vs building from source via the apache docs? And the reason for asking was due to the differences in installation method, yet having both marketed as "Apache".

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Very good question here.

Let me share some of my thoughts as I have installed ambari both from source and from Hortonworks Repos.  Before I get started you should know that Hortonworks was a major contributor to Ambari Project, as such their documentation is very detailed for how to install Ambari and its components.   In my opinion this is the preferred documentation.      Hortonwork repos are THE public repos for ambari.  Using them is much easier than building from source.

The Ambari Project page at ambari.apache.org is just the project page.  The documentation is specifically for ambari, and not necessarily for "hadoop" and does not include all the screen shots and deeper info you will find in the HortonWorks/Cloudera documentation for the same.   Although the Project Page does not go into much detail, it does have the required artifacts, and enough information to setup nodes and get into the Cluster Install Wizard.   For those organizations which are required to use private repos or to build their own,  the Ambari Project page is very important.