Gareth, I've sifted through the responses thus far and think I have
something to add. A few months ago I first played with Debian, two weeks later
all Redhat /sparc/intel/ppc servers globally (about 20) in my company
were running Debian and all new Linux servers are being built as Debian at
the expense of RedHat/Solaris.
The reason for this big turn around? Manageability, syncronicity.
I am no hacker, I'm an admin and I'm interested in making my life easier
while still getting top performance/reliability - Debian does that.
There was no great leap of logic for me to get my head around Debian as an
admin who had used RedHat almost exclusively for 5+ years. It also has the
advantage of being a SysV layout like much of Solaris, which is one of
the most popular Unix systems for "certified" people.
Debian systems are by far the easiest I've had to manage with the added
bonus of being able to have identical systems on different hardware. It's
a no brainer.
Compared to managing other Linux distributions, Debian is the easiest
and other certified professionals (ie Solaris admins) will be far more
familiar with Debian and it's workings than RH due to the filesystem
structure. Debian is more rock solid and secure (out of the box) and is far more
practical as a server (or workstation) in any business environment.
You'll need to educate both your boss and your colleagues, show them how
things work in Debian (esp apt-get by example). Explain the Debian
"Stable" releases and security update processes.
Failing that, take your boss out to lunch with Angus and Jeff Waugh as
it was they who convinced me over dinner to give Debian a second look
after I initially floundered with Slink.
Good luck. You contact me as reference point should you need to go that
far.
On Wed, 29 Nov 2000 09:28:56 Gareth Walters wrote:
> G'day all,
> My boss has asked me to convert our 2 Debian boxes (the firewall
and the
> mail server/Web proxy) from Debian to RedHat for the sole reason that
I am
> the only person with any Debain experience and he would feel better if
more
> people could fix any problems that arose (in case I was not around for
some
> reason)
>
> I am loathe to do this for a few reasons.
>
> It's a pain in the neck
> They work fine now why screw around with them ( I am in the process
of
> upgrades and a security review)
> If someone feels confident in screwing around with these machines
doesn't
> that make it more likely they will and hence a security risk/possible
> problem exists.
>
>
> Am I just being stubborn? Do I have a point?
> Are there some more points to be made?
>
>
> TIA for any and all discussion/advice/opinions
>
>
> -----Gareth Walters
>
>
>
> --
> SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
> More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
--
Cheers,
Craige.
--------------------------------------
Apt-get a clue. Apt-get Debian.
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
