begin quoting Andrew Lentvorski as of Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 03:46:43PM -0800: > James G. Sack (jim) wrote: > >Which brings up the question of distro (or distros). > > Oh, dear. Where's my asbestos suit ... Heh.
> >Q1. I made a suggestion of having a small emergency distro installed in > >addition to the normal OS. Does anyone think this is worth it? > > We're probably better off having the "emergency distro" on a DVD in the > slimline drive or on a USB flash key nearby. If something goes > sufficiently wrong to take out the main distribution that badly, it will > take out the backup too. Yes. If you expect the OS to trash itself, having an alternative OS on a nearby partition is a good thing. I don't think we have this risk, and if we do, running the bulk of the system in a virtual environment solves that problem handily. > >Q3. Is debian or debian-based the acknowledged lead OS contender? > > - is ubuntu in the running? (maybe Ubuntu LTS, Long Term Support) > > - is there any argument for RH/Suse alternatives > > Ubuntu is not in the running because it does not have a "developer" > baseline that's useful. Try as I might to like Ubuntu, getting all the > dev tools installed is a PITA. > > Suse I would object to on moral grounds. See Microsoft/Novell patent > fiasco. I think I am not alone on this. > > I'm not actively opposed to Debian, but the whole Iceweasel thing > annoyed me. Not enough to ignore them on a server, but certainly I > won't use them on a desktop anymore. However, maybe time will prove There's always Slackware. :) What we need is a list of candidates, and then the pros and cons for each. What are the candidate distros? CentOS Debian Gentoo RedHat Slackware SuSE Ubuntu Any others worthy of serious consideration? You've noted objections for Ubuntu and SuSE. I tend to object to using Gentoo for a server, as I happen to think that servers should be low maintenance... although there's an argument to be made otherwise, I guess. I know nothing about CenOS. Debian Stable I'd have no problem with; likewise, I can mount no serious objection to a RedHat distro. That's my $0.005 :) > them right. Although, if I'm going to cut off my nose to spite my face, > I'd rather poke out both eyes, as well. Thus, I'd use OpenBSD. ;) I'm still trying to get that on to the Soekris box. Obvious, my BSD-fu is very weak. -- Forgive me my soft spots.... Stewart Stremler -- KPLUG-Steer@kernel-panic.org http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-steer
