Distro musings - Page 2

Daz · 17-09-2007, 11:26

I was trying to remain as close to the official repositories as possible to keep it as Red Hat like as possible.

Hmm

Burble · 17-09-2007, 11:28

Sounds like a sensible idea to me Daz.

Mark · 17-09-2007, 11:29

I've used custom PHP/Apache on top of RHEL before. The trouble with using a pre-compiled PHP in particular is that if you do anything remotely fancy you may well discover the distro hasn't compiled the extension you want, and then you're on your own anyway.

Garp · 17-09-2007, 13:06

I wouldn't use Gentoo on any live server. I like the distro but the cost / benefits are negligible at best. The software is scarily bleeding edge no matter what stability testing they've done. When it comes down to it though, its very hard to come up with any decent argument for it. Stupid things like having to alter useflags and recompile half your OS just to add 'small' additional functions never struck me as a good design feature.
We tend to favour Ubuntu here, for reasons I still don't entirely grasp given canonicals interesting definition of 'support'. Big advantage is the wealth of packages in the repositories which we prefer to use rather than rolling our own even though we've got numerous staff capable of doing so. We like to keep our extensive customisations down to stuff like config files and modules so that upgrading and patching is as easy as possible. Being able to "apt-get upgrade" helps a lot from a patching perspective!

Mark · 17-09-2007, 13:08

I use Gentoo for much the same reasons (big repository etc.). OK, so it takes a little longer to update, but I just SSH in, fire up a 'screen' session so it doesn't disconnect, set off an update, and leave it to get on with it. 9 times out of 10, I come back to no problems except patching up config files. I am only two non-critical servers though - I fully understand the need for change control on a business server (unlike a certain ISP I could name).

Daz · 17-09-2007, 13:12

Preaching to the choir on the ubuntu front, I like it, and will continue to use it, I'm just wondering if - from a work point of view - having some proper mess around time with CentOS/Red Hat would be useful

Mark · 17-09-2007, 13:14

Stick it in a VM and have a play. I can't think of any easier way to find out tbh.

Daz · 17-09-2007, 13:22

Oh aye, but I need to maintain one that's actually doing something to properly get a feel for it. Things like that I bang in a VM tend to get a quick poke and then aren't touched again

17-09-2007, 11:26	#11
Daz The Stig Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Swad! Posts: 10,713	I was trying to remain as close to the official repositories as possible to keep it as Red Hat like as possible. Hmm __________________ apt-get moo

17-09-2007, 13:06	#14
Garp Preparing more tumbleweed Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Hawaii Posts: 6,038	I wouldn't use Gentoo on any live server. I like the distro but the cost / benefits are negligible at best. The software is scarily bleeding edge no matter what stability testing they've done. When it comes down to it though, its very hard to come up with any decent argument for it. Stupid things like having to alter useflags and recompile half your OS just to add 'small' additional functions never struck me as a good design feature. We tend to favour Ubuntu here, for reasons I still don't entirely grasp given canonicals interesting definition of 'support'. Big advantage is the wealth of packages in the repositories which we prefer to use rather than rolling our own even though we've got numerous staff capable of doing so. We like to keep our extensive customisations down to stuff like config files and modules so that upgrading and patching is as easy as possible. Being able to "apt-get upgrade" helps a lot from a patching perspective! __________________ Mal: Define "interesting"? Wash: "Oh, God, oh, God, we're all gonna die"?

17-09-2007, 13:12	#16
Daz The Stig Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Swad! Posts: 10,713	Preaching to the choir on the ubuntu front, I like it, and will continue to use it, I'm just wondering if - from a work point of view - having some proper mess around time with CentOS/Red Hat would be useful __________________ apt-get moo

17-09-2007, 13:22	#18
Daz The Stig Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Swad! Posts: 10,713	Oh aye, but I need to maintain one that's actually doing something to properly get a feel for it. Things like that I bang in a VM tend to get a quick poke and then aren't touched again __________________ apt-get moo

17-09-2007, 11:28	#12
Burble Rocket Fuel Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 7,826	Sounds like a sensible idea to me Daz.

17-09-2007, 11:29	#13
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	I've used custom PHP/Apache on top of RHEL before. The trouble with using a pre-compiled PHP in particular is that if you do anything remotely fancy you may well discover the distro hasn't compiled the extension you want, and then you're on your own anyway.

17-09-2007, 13:08	#15
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	I use Gentoo for much the same reasons (big repository etc.). OK, so it takes a little longer to update, but I just SSH in, fire up a 'screen' session so it doesn't disconnect, set off an update, and leave it to get on with it. 9 times out of 10, I come back to no problems except patching up config files. I am only two non-critical servers though - I fully understand the need for change control on a business server (unlike a certain ISP I could name).

17-09-2007, 13:14	#17
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	Stick it in a VM and have a play. I can't think of any easier way to find out tbh.