[PLUG] Which distribution has the best staying power?

[Robert Munro]

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On Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:29:02 -0800 chris (fool) mccraw wrote:
> ok everyone bust out your longest-running-linux story--this might 
> get hilarious =)

Okay, I'll tell what I have, though it doesn't come close to some long
running Linux systems that have already been mentioned in this thread.

I have a box with an old MSI mobo, a 1.5GHz Athlon chip and 512MB RAM,
plus a SCSI controller, a couple of old 10K RPM 10GB Quantum SCSI hard
drives and a floppy drive. All but the case, PSU, RAM, Ethernet cards,
CD-ROM drive, keyboard and mouse were picked up at Free Geek for about
$50 total, and the 15" CRT monitor was a salvaged 'gift' from a friend.

Not counting what I spent to build the box initially over 12 years ago
before the original system imploded due to CPU fan failure, I probably
spent less than $200 to rebuild this machine for a firewall and backup.

The system is a rock solid firewall running iptables that I've
written, and I've never been hacked, although I see lots of attempts
in my logs.

It's running Mandriva 2008.1 which is no longer supported, and KDE
3.5. It stays powered on 24/7/365, and is only rebooted after the
occasional power outage. I have used it as a backup desktop system
when my desktop box had hardware problems, but mostly it's a firewall,
print server and an internet radio server for streaming m3u playlists
at Paradise Radio.

It also backs up all of my personal data files once every week, just
in case I ever lose the three backups I keep on my desktop system plus
the backup on my laptop. All three systems are linked by rsync
backups, and those two non-desktop systems rsync their cron job logs
to the desktop.

Yes, I am a bit paranoid about backups. Having a CPU fan fail
silently, taking out a motherboard, PSU and a couple of hard drives
will do that.

I'll probably install the latest Mandriva, or maybe Mageia, on that
box one of these days, but I'm not in a hurry to do that. It's running
fine now for what I need it to do.

Anyway, that is my oldest Linux operating system that is still
kicking. I enjoy hearing about other people's Linux systems, so please
do share.

All the best,
Robert
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