12 Jul
2006
12 Jul
'06
2:52 p.m.
Hi Yves,
On Wed, Jul 12, 2006 at 02:48:31PM +0200, Yves Glodt wrote:
(let the fight begin)
Which arms? ;-)
I'm going to set up a new
la{firebird,mysql}p/mail/ftp server
in a near future
and I wonder which distro I should choose...
tastes...
I have already a box (doing the same kind of
services)
running debian sarge,
which is fine, but 2 things bother me with sarge:
- sarge is outdated (kernel 2.6.8, php only V4, no mysql 5)
- the new release (etch) will (hopefully) be out in 6 month
Erm.
Outdated: there is such a thing as backports. I'm using this
in production without trouble. Also, I don't see many issues
that would require a more recent kernel, and I would not
really hesitate to compile my own if necessary.
Etch: the upgrade is quite easy, once it's there, just
apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade (and follow up with a
few more apt-get upgrades). Unless you fiddled too much by
hand, this should easily get you etch without much trouble.
I have upgraded several production machines this way from
woody to sarge, with few surprises.
You could also go with "testing" right now and simply change
it to "stable" once etch is officially out.
So I would end up installing an outdated distro, which
is
only 1 year old by
now... How long will debian provide security updates for sarge?
There are official lifetimes (new release plus x, can't remember
the value of x).
I have a strong temptation to go with ubuntu dapper,
which I
have made good
experiences with. Dapper is up-to-date, feels good, and has 5
years security
updates for the server version.
I run dapper on my laptop. Can't see that many differences to
Debian for the server side. But, if you're "bitching" about
oldness of Sarge now, what are you going to say about Dapper
a couple of years from now, much less in 5 years?
Only backdraw is that my colleagues are debian
die-hards and
seem not yet to
be pleased so much with the new kid on the block...
Proven values...
Also, most of our firewalls in the wild run sarge, so
we have
a very good
knowledge about that specific release.
That's an excellent reason for staying with Sarge. Of course,
(K)Ubuntu being derived from Debian, the know-how is very well
reusable despite the differences.
Which distro, sarge, dapper or any other, would you
recommend
for this
purpose?
I do run Debian on the server, and Kubuntu on the laptop.
Exceptions are machines running specific proprietary software
certified for use with specific distros only (RedHat in these
cases). Also, my desktops run Debian testing (i.e. etch) - it's
not like the differences to Sarge are a big issue.
For a classic LAMP stack, I'd go with Debian stable myself. In any
case, you'd have to tweak the settings to get optimum security.
Cases could be made for RedHat, SuSE, or one of the myriad
other distros or one of the BSDs, but since you've got the
in-house know-how, why change?
Greetings & hth, Eric