On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 7:03 AM, Michael Robinson <[email protected]>wrote:
> I'm a heavy CentOS user. The reality is, enterprise distributions > of Linux like Slackware and CentOS tend be rock solid stable, but > they aren't cutting edge. I wonder for example if a newer version > of Crossover Linux Standard will support the mathematical fonts I > need in Microsoft Word 2003 better? Can I run the newest version > of Crossover Linux Standard on CentOS? The answer is probably > no. The cutting edge Linux distributions are impressively stable, > Fedora will work as a server system. Thing is, cutting edge > distributions are unstable from the standpoint that the features > they support are not necessarily appropriate for prime time yet. > I don't know much about Mandriva but it sounds like it is closer > to Fedora than say CentOS or Slackware. How often does Mandriva > come out? Yearly? Semi annually? Monthly? The ideas that Enterprise > distributions of Linux like Slackware and CentOS are the way to go are > problematic from the standpoint that these distros clearly don't work > as well for Desktop use as say Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, and possibly also > Mandriva. For a desktop system one needs to run the latest version of > wine and the latest drivers, neither of which are necessarily stable. > > I think anything shorter than a 1 year time period for a release doesn't > make sense. A 10 year time period is a long time release where the > feature set is going to get quite ancient by the time the next release > comes on line. Linux needs to advance in certain areas and this can > make enterprise distributions of Linux seem like poor choices compared > to non enterprise distributions. Thing is, there is a trade off that > must be recognized between being advanced and being stable/reliable. > If Linux supports what you need to do today, CentOS and Slackware might > be the best choices for you. If, however, you need the cutting edge > mathematical font support in Word 2003 under Crossover Linux, then > maybe Mandriva and a frequent update regimen is the way to go. > Old 4.x versions of CentOS for example do not support the latest > Dansguardian releases. I'm not sure when iptables started supporting > user based packet filtering. Linux still needs to improve in some > areas and generally speaking it is. > > A cutting edge Linux distribution can be a better choice on a server > than a non cutting edge distribution depending on what the server has > to do and how careful you are about avoiding the use of unstable > features. > > Increasingly I need to think about switching from CentOS 5.x on my > desktop to something else where Ubuntu hasn't seemed to be the right > choice. > > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > Slackware isn't considered enterprise nor a server distro. You can find updated packages and things that Patrick doesn't normally release as he just does security updates once a release is in the wild. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
