[Tfug] Maintainable free UNIX

[Harry McGregor]

On Wed, 31 Jul 2002, Keith Davey wrote:

> Well with Linux comming of age and other free unixes also continuing to
> mature I was wonders about system mainatablility between all these
> diffrent systems.  Day in and day out we here about this Linux install is
> so easy and these system administration tools are so cool, but in the end
> we are likly to install a system once and in theory maintain it thur
> patches and upgrades for the life of the system.  My question in
> particular is one of opinion.  What free unix system do you feel is the
> most maintainable and why?  Conversely what free unix systems do you feel
> are the hardest to maintain and why?

The BSD Ports system is rather good about maintainability, though apt-get
is trully wonderful.

For any sort of server application, that you needed automagic updates at
night (security updates only), I would go with Debian Stable (yes, I know
it get's old, but only at the same speed as the hardware does...).

For a good workstation, or a server that I was "running", instead of
locking in a closet, I would go with Debian Testing (Sarge now...), as it
normaly keeps up with software releases, and is quite stable.

> .
> Personaly I find the the most maintanable system I have worked with to be
> FreeBSD.  CVSup may not be unique to FreeBSD but it sure is nice when
> coupled with the ability to rebuild the system from source on the fly.
> Patching individual modules and rebuilding just those modules on the fly
> is great as well.  My second selection would be Debian with apt-get.
> Least mantainable it seems to me is RedHat.  First off I have never been a
> fan of straite RPM.  Dependancy problems aside its just clunky to work
> with.  RPM coupled with a upper level dependancy DB like in SUSE works ok,
> but the SUSE tools to perform upgrades and patches is to slow (YAST2 sucks
> the big one!).

My bet right now would be on debian for application compatiblity, as at
points getting things to run under the BSDs can be a pain, and ports don't
always work right.

As far as using an RPM based distro in a critical application, not when I
am running, or paying for the system.

			Harry

> .
> Ok opinions welcome but please lets try not to make this into a pissing
> contest (Bowie!)
> .
> Keith Davey
>
>
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Harry McGregor, CEO, Co-Founder
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