[PLUG] Re: Fedora Core 3 EOL...

[Keith Lofstrom]

Jason R. Martin wrote:
> New device drivers for common hardware (particularily server hardware)
> are very often back-ported to RHEL update releases.  RHEL is supported
> for five years from release, and if you give them enough money they'll
> probably support it for longer.
>
> What I don't know is whether CentOS/Scientific Linux/etc. follow the
> RHEL update releases, and thus also gain the back-ported device
> drivers for newer hardware.

On 3/27/06, Keith Morse <kgmorse at mpcu.com> wrote:
> Speaking only about CentOS, For the most part the answer is yes. At
> least to the extent that the source rpms that RedHat releases contains
> the said back-ported devices and passes their QA process.

On Mon, Mar 27, 2006 at 10:54:07PM -0800, Jason R. Martin wrote:
> Do they also release updated installer images?  Doesn't matter too
> much if the kernel rpm is updated with your shiny new SATA driver if
> the installer image kernel can't understand your SATA controller (as a
> rather common example).  This, to me, seems like it would be the
> difficult part, since rebuilding SRPMS is easy but remastering an
> install CD is a bit more work.

The installer images for both CentOS and S.L. tend to exceed what is
available for RHEL, both in frequency and range of available apps
software.  I don't know how CentOS is for device drivers, but S.L.
offers only what RHEL does.   And RHEL is pretty conservative in the
device driver department - it is targeted at servers, not at laptops
or desktop workstations particularly.  That is why I suggest Fedora
Core for those with 2006 happy-family-mixed-vegetable-brand gizmos
that have alpha development drivers available.  But if you can show
some restraint in your hardware purchases, then you can get by on 
stable drivers.

Where S.L. exceeds RHEL is in range of apps, and in testing.  Since
it starts with RHEL, and then adds more testing amongst the scientific
community, it is slightly less buggy - and reaches users a few months
later.  S.L. adds extra software for updating and extra repositories
( I avoid ATRPMS, but DAG is good ), more applications and file system
types, and heavy support for clustering.  Generally it is extended 
into the scientific/academic space , as you would expect from the 
name.  You can find it at: https://www.scientificlinux.org/

I don't mean to disparage CentOS with the S.L. promotion;  I use
CentOS on my offsite virtual server, and it has its own charms.
I suspect there is a lot of sharing between the two communities,
and that helps both.  

But the main thing about both is that they are stable, and supported
for a long time.  If you like RedHat style, are too cheap to pay for
RHEL but still want long term support, and don't need bleeding edge
drivers, then consider CentOS or Scientific Linux.  If you need the
latest drivers and are willing to make upgrades, go for Fedora.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs