[HLUG] Ubuntu 8.04 - is it a stable LAMP environment?

[Alex Mace]

Personally, I'd always stick to the latest point release of PHP as  
it'll have the most up to date security updates in it. 5.2 came out  
near the end of 2006, so it's hardly bleeding edge. 5.2 also has the  
filter extension built in, which is very important in helping defend  
against security exploits. I wouldn't advocate going straight to a  
major new version (e.g. PHP 6) but after a period of testing it makes  
sense to be on the current point release.

I prefer to stick with the packaged versions just because it's easy.  
The current version in Ubuntu is 5.2.4 and 8.04 is the LTS version so  
you know that the security updates will be available for the next  
however many years without having to recompile it to get them...

Alex

On 9 Jun 2008, at 22:15, Andy Smith wrote:

> Hi Andrew,
>
> On Mon, Jun 09, 2008 at 10:29:23AM +0100, Andrew Hodgson wrote:
>> I need to get up and running a web server with a recent version of  
>> PHP 5.2, and a relatively recent Apache.  We use RedHat as a distro  
>> at work, however, even in RHEL5 the PHP version is ancient and not  
>> working with many apps.  We can upgrade that package, but there is  
>> no point in then getting the RedHat license.
>
> Why do you need the absolute latest version of PHP?  Is there some
> killer new feature you require?
>
> For me, having a packaged, secure and manageable (which may mean
> using the distribution the users are more familiar with) setup is
> far more important than having the latest point release.
>
>> I am either thinking of going with Debian Etch or Ubuntu 8.04.   
>> Ubuntu has a slightly later PHP and Apache, but I am wondering  
>> whether they are as stable as Etch?  I am used to Debian Etch, and  
>> would like to stay with this, but if people are using the LAMP  
>> stack in Ubuntu successfully, then I think my web developers would  
>> be a lot happier with us.
>
> If the users are familiar with Ubuntu then barring any specific
> reasoning that you haven't yet mentioned, that's what I'd use.  It
> will cut down ongoing support.
>
> Cheers,
> Andy
>
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