[NCLUG] Suggestions for a distro change

[Kevin H. Olson]

Hello All,

  For a number of years, I've used Fedora as the distribution for 
several servers that we maintain at work. I've always been pretty happy 
with it, but recently Fedora seems to have really pulled everything 
together and they are actually pushing releases out the door every six 
months, and archiving the older versions.

  The result is now that over 8 machines we have 4 different releases, 
ranging from Core 4 to Release 8. Every upgrade is unique, as some 
package or another doesn't want to upgrade, or Fedora didn't package the 
"latest" of an update in the Release (e.g., moving from 7 to 8 was on 
one machine was difficult because in Release 7 there was an update to 
the Kernel, but Release 8 had an older version, so it was necessary to 
run down on the net a fc8 release of the kernel later than the one 
already running on the machine).

  With the rapid obsolescence of releases, I am concerned about security 
patches. It is not that the older releases in anyway fail us, it is just 
that they stop receiving any update support.

  Therefore, I am looking for suggestions on replacing the distribution. 
I've been debating CentOS, as it seems to have a longer, stable life. 
However, I have to admit I'm not that familiar with the other 
distributions. I've read the basic stuff, and I think, for example, that 
Ubuntu is not appropriate since these are not desktop machines.

  So, I turn to the collective wisdom of the group: what would be a good 
distribution and why?

  Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Kevin