[Klug-general] Shiny New Laptop

[Stuart Buckland]

On Fri, 2006-04-21 at 11:56 +0100, Karl Lattimer wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-04-21 at 10:12 +0000, George Prowse wrote:
> > On 21/04/06, Karl Lattimer <karl at nncc.info> wrote:
> >         You really are that bothered about what I've said?
> >         
> >         LMFAO
> > 
> > The point was to show that people who dont understand gentoo never
> > generally get the idea of it. 
> > 
> 
> Whilst attempting to make a personal slur against me.
> 
> Believe me, I understand it, I even use it in specific places I get the
> idea, but I don't fathom why someone would run a production system on
> it. There is too much which can go wrong with it, which is why it hovers
> around the bottom of the distribution charts;
> 
> http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
> 
> Most linux users I know refuse to put the time and effort into it, and
> some of them have done LFS (like myself) whilst learning the inner
> workings of the OS.
> 
> If for instance you have an issue with LDAP in a production environment,
> where some badly compiled code is causing corruption in your tree then
> you have a major issue. Would you have that problem with redhat EL, suse
> ES? No! 
> 
> The simple example to take is that to my knowledge not one single
> mission critical colo server runs on gentoo, I use two colo servers
> which run on FC2.
> 
> I reiterate that I understand its uses, I see reasoning for it, but I
> don't see the logic in using it as a server OS, or a desktop OS. Its
> more of a tinkering device.
> 
> K,

All,

Is it really worth arguing over which distribution is best.  Personally
I've found I'm most comfortable with Gentoo on my desktop, there's
nothing wrong with that.  Karl doesn't see the logic in using gentoo and
he prefers RPM based distro's, well... that's fine too.

We don't live in the same street and I'd lay odds we don't drive the
same cars.  What difference does it really make so long as you are happy
with your decisions.

Saying that I do tend to agree with Karl that Gentoo is not appropriate
for production server use but perhaps for different reasons.  Actually,
the more Linux servers I manage the more I think Linux as a whole isn't
appropriate for production server use but that depends on your
definition of production servers and the specific service requirements.

Ultimately it all comes down to requirements and priorities and those
often differ from project to project let alone from person to person.

We need variety in Linux distributions just as much as we need
alternatives to Linux.  Even MS are slowly waking up to the fact that
homogenus environments don't work in the real world over a long term and
heterogenus environments are not only a fact of life but also have their
inherent benefits.

It's the variety, choices and differences which make things interesting.

Stu


-- 
Stuart Buckland <stuart at nightime.org.uk>