[PLUG] Linux Distro

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> I must differ regards CentOS 5.0 ...
>
> I am currently upgrading 7 machines (2 desktops, 2 servers, 2 laptops,
> and a firewall) to an RHEL5 clone very similar to CentOS 5.0 .  I have
> run into lots of small broken things.  Compared to a similar upgrade
> on two machines to an RHEL 4.4 clone six months ago, it has been much
> more painful and time consuming.  I imagine CentOS 5.1 will be a lot
> prettier.  You might consider upgrading to CentOS 4.4, and upgrading
> again at 5.1.  Another alternative to CentOS is Scientific Linux, 
> which is a clone with extra scientific packages and some media stuff,
> out of FermiLabs and CERN.
>
> If I knew then what I know now, I probably would have moved everything
> to 4.4.  But every bug I encounter I think is the last one.  Also, I
> would have turned off SELINUX on everything inside the firewall.
> SELINUX is nice in theory but breaks a lot of apps in actuality. 
> Many are problems with recent versions of gnome, which are common
> to many distros (Ubuntu edgy and feisty, for example). 
>
> When I finish with my upgrades, I will post a list of problems 
> encountered.  I am migrating one of the laptops from RH9, so there
> may be some information we can trade.
>
> Eventually, I think I will be happy with 5.0, but the journey has been
> more painful than I planned on.
>
> Keith
>   
I don't know about Scientific Linux, but CentOS just put out a 4.5, so 
if you're going with an RHEL 4 clone, that's probably better than 4.4. 
Meanwhile on the distro front:

1. I have Scientific Linux 5 but I've been unable to get it to run as a 
guest in VMware Workstation 6. I have *not* had similar problems with 
CentOS 5, and I haven't really taken the time to dig into it. There's 
nothing in Scientific Linux that I can't get in source form for CentOS, 
although I think I'd prefer Fermilab and CERN as a source of updates to 
a "community" distro.

2. Yeah, SELinux in CentOS and other RHEL 5 workalikes is a PITA. So is 
having your servers cracked, though. I'm digging my way through the RHEL 
5 Deployment guide, which has a couple hundred pages on security now. :)

3. Fedora 7 looks really nice. I am struggling very hard with the 
temptation to join the Fedora bandwagon. But I have no intention of 
running anything but Gentoo on the new box, so I'm holding off.