[NCLUG] Suggestions for a distro change

[Shelley, Robert - Fort Collins, CO]

Good morning, Kevin

Although a relative novice in the depth of my knowledge, but having a
passing familiarity with twenty years of occasional dabbling in Unix and
Linux distros, let me be the first to suggest Debian Long Term Stable.
http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-choosing.en.html#s3.1  It is intended
for servers which need a stable environment. Seems tailored to your
need...

But there are others on this list with much more Linux knowledge, so
I'll watch the collective wisdom responses with interest, too.

- Bob

Robert Shelley
n-Link Corporation in support of
USDA-OCIO-ITM-Projects-PMO
Robert.Shelley at ftc.usda.gov
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) - Protect it like your own!

-----Original Message-----
From: nclug-bounces at nclug.org [mailto:nclug-bounces at nclug.org] On Behalf
Of Kevin H. Olson
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 8:30 AM
To: nclug at nclug.org
Subject: [NCLUG] Suggestions for a distro change

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
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