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Re: [LUG] File Server

 

On Sat, 2007-01-13 at 10:03 +0000, Neil Williams wrote:

> True, I didn't quite mean what I typed. I do think that certain
> distributions are not particularly suited to server use. CentOS and
> Ubuntu or others like Linspire, Yoper that are principally desktop
> distributions.

I think the one of the single biggest influences on how suitable a
distro is for server use is the availability of updates.  As long as the
distro you're using provides a half sensible Linux base build you can do
what you want on top of it, but if you stop getting updates for it 12
months after it was released (I'm looking at you Fedora, particularly
now Fedora Legacy has closed down) then the usefulness of it on a server
is rather compromised.  As long as you get security updates and bugfixes
there should be no reason any distro can't be a server for a long time.

This is one area where Sun provides really good support for Solaris, you
can get updates for Solaris years after the version was released.

> Which ones do you run, Alex? RHEL? Slackware?

Yeah we run pretty much exclusively Red Hat builds, with a pretty major
in house application stack bolted on top.

> Are there any distributions that you would consider unsuitable for a
> server?

I think I pretty much cover this off above.  As long as you're familiar
enough with whatever you're using that you can secure it and keep it
updated then the world is your oyster.

Alex.


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