[Gllug] Linux support options

[Steve Nelson]

On 2/27/06, Martin A. Brooks <martin at hinterlands.org> wrote:
> Richard wrote:
> > I'm looking at the options for supporting a major corporate Linux
> > deployment, and I'm wondering if there's a way to dodge Red Hat's
> > painfully high support contract costs (or their per-server pricing model).
>
> Yes, don't use Redhat.  Use something supportable instead.  Debian
> springs to mind.

Sorry Mart, I like Debian as much as the next guy, but saying Redhat
isn't supportable is just silly.

> I was contracted to a company that had a number of Redhat development
> machines running Oracle.  These machines would routinely require
> rebooting, were badly patched, and required a large amount of non-Redhat
> software.

I run 100s of Redhat machines, and dozens of Oracle servers and
clusters, on a range of hardware, on a mix of rhel 2 3 and 4.  They
don't require rebooting, patch management is very simple, and I have
not found them to need a large amount of of non-Redhat software. 
You've cited one bad example - please drop the FUD and say something
sensible instead.

> I replaced half of them with Debian and they suddenly went upward of 12
> months between reboots.  The company has since moved their production
> systems to Debian.

And good for them - I'd be happy with the company running either. 
Personally, I love Debian, and I'd argue the Debian corner, but to
imply or even state that Redhat is unsupportable or bad is not on.

S.
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