Re: yum flavors vs/ fc1, fc2, fc3...infinity

[John McBride <jmcbride ccis com>]

Robert Locke wrote:
> On Thu, 2004-07-15 at 04:53, John McBride wrote:
>
>
> > I suspect it is as I feared. The rules appear to have changed (fedora 
> > was originally portrayed as being somewhat stable, but over time more 
> > posts are saying it's not suitable for production, only experimentation 
> > stuff or home use).
>
>
> So, yes, FC2, I suppose, could be declared a less stable distribution
> but it's not a minor upgrade (a proverbial point release).  To me, FC2
> is a dreaded point zero release.  But I refuse to condemn the Fedora
> Project for moving forward.

I'm glad they are moving forward, too, and it's great that there are a 
lot more people involved. Still, you sound like you are in the same 
position as me--FC1 was great and fairly stable from the get-go, while 
FC2 appears to have issues, and FC3 is coming up pretty 
fast...administrating these 25 or so machines is a very part-time thing 
for me. Redoing two servers and 25 boxes every 6 months is problematic 
for me, it's repetitive work I'd rather not do. And it's work that 
implies Linux is not ready for prime-time (that's the perception I will 
get). I hope they at least consider stretching things out or coming up 
with a better upgrade methodology.

> > This is okay and all, but it leaves me in a tough spot. I'm gonna take 
> > some hits for migrating a bunch of people off RH 8/9 6 mos. ago and now 
> > this product appears to be marketed strictly for experimentation.
> >
> > I've tried Suse, Slack, Debian, Mandrake...and all had far more problems 
> > than Fedora, in my experience.
>
>
> I think the real change we need to understand is that the Fedora Project
> is just that, a Project that is community supported.
>
> The free lunch is still here, though.  Just as many probably did before
> with RHL you can continue to do with FC: download it, install it and use
> it.
>
> But, with RHL, how did we get support?  We paid.  But now, you need to
> take ownership of supporting it yourself (with your clients paying you)
> or you need to find someone to support you.  But expect to pay for that
> support.  Of course, if this is a little too shaky for you on who to
> find to support you, then go to what the big vendors are supporting:
> purchase RHEL or purchase Suse Enterprise and receive a support contract
> if the alternative is too shaky.

Actually support (in the form of updates) was free for RedHat products 
until RH9 was end-of-lifed, as I recall. It's all subscription now, 
isn't it?

The problem is we are still evaluating whether anyone in our company 
should use linux *at all* with the idea that, at some point, we might go 
for a more professional service, distribution or "flavor". It's just too 
early right now. "Free" is not that big of a deal to me--I just don't 
want to be locked into a subscription.

Fedora gotten to be like drugs for me. Often new packages will appear 
for fedora through a third party site almost immediately after 
release...it's great. And they tend to work just fine.

Suse, by the way, is a borked product. I know people might not want to 
hear that, but I've got two fairly seasoned web developers (lots of unix 
and web experience) who had several support mightmares with 
it---critical packages way out of date, paths and environment variables 
pointing to unusual places, etc. They are okay with FC1 but are going to 
scream when I walk in to upgrade them to FC2 or FC3 ("YOU JUST DID THIS 
LAST WEEK!") not really but they will be pissed.


> > RedHat 2004 anyone, coming to a shelf near you?
>
>
> Actually it already is: shrink-wrapped and called Red Hat Professional
> Workstation and based on RHEL 3 WS.  Works nice....

I have never seen this anywhere. I have been under the impression that 
all non-fedora RH products are subscription only. I'll look into this 
and if this is something like a RH8/9 replacement I will go for it right 
away.

Also, I have become totally addicted to my local rsync'd FC1 yum 
repository. I doubt I'll ever use another distro that does not have this 
ability.

---
John