I'll be blasted for this, no doubt. But I run Gentoo on my servers. They only get EXACTLY what I need them to have.
Admittedly, it's only 3-4 servers, and they're low maintenance. I would never do Gentoo for a large server farm, as much as I love it. And I run Gentoo for both my linux desktops as well, with xmonad as the window manager. :) On 05/08/2014 01:30 PM, Ryan Simpkins wrote: > When I first starting installing Linux (Debian 1.1), I would carefully go > through the default packages and remove everything that wasn't essential to > running the system. The reason why was bandwidth. At that time we had a single > T1 to share for the office. It was very expensive. Downloading lots of > needless package updates took forever, especially with several machines to > update. It was easy then. There just weren't that many packages to worry > about. > > In the intervening years, however, the package list grew too large to go > through. It was easier to look for a 'minimal' install disk and be on my way. > Most of the time a 'minimal' was fairly minimal. Networks were fast enough > that installing a few extra packages was no big deal. > > Recently I have noticed that distro builders are having a really difficult > time with the concept of 'minimal'. All kinds of stuff is being installed on > our servers we just don't need. Virtualization means I don't have a handful of > hosts to update, I've got ten times that many. Bandwidth and disk are again > becoming a problem. Updates are taking forever. Linux containers promise to > eliminate many reasons for virtualization (which will ease the pain). Yet, the > tools to manage these environments are still growing. > > It is time, now, for the great package purge of 2014. A new Salt state called > 'killallthethings' is in my git repo. Its job will be to sanction all the > cruft with the efficiency of Clint Eastwood in the Swiss Alps. And I ask you, > PLUG'ers, to offer up suggestions of sacrifice... What are the needless > packages you would love to have eliminated? > > -Dragon^H^H^H^H^H^HRyan > > P.S. My blood does NOT need to be completely replaced twice a year, contrary > to rumor. > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ -- Matthew Walker HAM Call Sign: N7TOX Kydance Hosting & Consulting, Inc. - http://www.kydance.net/ PHP, Perl, and Web Development - Linux Server Administration /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
