1) Can it be configured to download patches, instead of complete source
files?
** As far as I know you can install any patch you want, just like with any
other system. You would just apply the patch rather than 'emerging' the
source. Some packages, like kernel sources, you also have the choice of
'emerging' an already patched sources if you want.
As far as 'configured', you could write your own ebuild to install a patch.
2) Another concern is stability--how often will updates break Gentoo?
** Like any system, happens once in awhile. I have found that Gentoo of all
the distro's and MS I have used, seems to be more stable than most. That is
why I finally moved my finances over to Linux. Of course though, like
anything, backups are always a good idea.
The Gentoo Team seems to be really on top of catching problems. And when they
do arise, unlike some distro's I have used, you as a user are not cut off (or
have to jump thru hoops to do so) from writing a bug report and actively
working on it with the bug troubleshooter.
I would say that overall, Very Stable, your mileage may differ, but doubt it.
3) (D) Roll-back updates on specific packages
(B) Update only specific packages
** Easy to do, just read up on 'emerge' and 'portage' in the User Doc Section
of the Website.
4) (E) Automate the checking for security updates
** ?? Not sure how to automate this, maybe someone else knows. I do know that
at the top of the forums section, Security Advisories are listed.
Hope that helps some.
On Thursday 29 May 2003 11:29 am, Matthew Tedder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We are currently using Red Hat to serve LTSP, X sessions, DNS, and
> Gateway to the outside world. Roughly every two weeks, Mozilla processes
> starts rapidly respawning processes until the entire system slows down to a
> complete freeze. Try killing those processes and it'll have respawned ten
> more by the time you're finished. When we reboot the server (cold boot),
> the Ext3 partitions frequently NEED a filesystem check, to prevent untold
> issues thereafter..... Sometimes not even booting. When we used ReiserFS
> for the last 4 yours on other systems, we had many power outages but never
> had a problem with the filesystem. Furthermore, it never required any long
> lasting filesystem check--which I thought was the main point of a
> journaling filesystems. It's nervous waiting for this thing while
> customers start walking out the door. After rebooting the server we cannot
> log into the console machine directly for at least one day--otherwise,
> it'll freeze up the whole system again.
>
> Other grievances with Red Hat are with KDE. It seems virtually all of
> the nice little things about it have been removed and we cannot properly
> theme the desktops--only the backgrounds and a few other peddy things. The
> most important feature to customers has been the little spinning disk that
> lets them know that an application is loading--particularly Mozilla, as it
> takes a longest to load. We still use KDE as much as possible because it
> shares its desktop componants, as where GNOME shares very little of
> anything. GNOME seems to be more a political alliance, because there is
> very rarely any relation between any of its applications, technically. The
> resulting difference in performance and resources is exceptionally
> significant.
>
> We are testing Gentoo and SuSE 8.2 Professional. Gentoo may be our
> ultimate answer but SuSE was MUCH easier to get up and properly running.
> Gentoo is impressive in terms of performance and customizability, but takes
> a long time even to expirement with. Can it be configured to download
> patches, instead of complete source files? We'll use SuSE until we get a
> stable Gentoo system up to satisfaction. Another concern is stability--how
> often will updates break Gentoo? We need security updates quickly, but
> will those updates break the system? We need to learn how to:
>
> (A) Update only security patches
> (B) Update only specific packages
> (D) Roll-back updates on specific packages
> (E) Automate the checking for security updates
>
> Knowing how to do all this will most likely mediate the risks
> sufficiently. If we can get all of this down pat, I might even decide to
> learn Python.
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