[Wiltshire] CentOS

[Barrie Bremner]

On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 09:07:21AM +0000, Richard Reynolds wrote:
> On 10/03/2008, Barrie Bremner <baz-wiltslug at barriebremner.com> wrote:
> 
> > I wouldn't say there's much to choose between Debian or RH based
> >  systems - installing, configuring and removing software are basically
> >  the same jobs, and there are distro specific files you need to be
> >  aware of, but there's not that much in it.
> 
> My oher problem with redhat other than the config differences which as
> people have pointed out is a case of 'what you know' is the bloat.
> Redhat is huge and slow as a result.
> 
> Try creating a decent size XEN image to run just for example apache to
> serve static pages. Both debian and gentoo can create ultra small fine
> tuned system out of the box with very little work. Try doing that with
> whatever the default install of redhat these days is (1.7G or
> something).

Fleshing out what I said earlier, I don't think it matters what distro
you choose for a desktop machine, nor how much disk space it takes
up. 10-20Gb for a full install of $distro is a spit in the ocean when
you can get 500Gb disks for lunch money. Also, it's relatively easy to
nuke a desktop machine and start afresh if you change your mind.

When it comes to servers that need to stay up, can be updated for
years to come, require minimal effort to install/maintain and
probably most importantly can be understood by everyone else, then
things like Redhat fit the bill.

Although there are similar systems out there for other distributions,
kickstart takes some beating when it comes to automated installs.
With very little effort you can go from a rack or five of bare
machines to installed boxes with no manual intervention.

It's possible to have a Redhat install in under 500Mb without any real
work. 
 
> Perhaps I'm wrong as I haven't installed a RH system in a lot time and
> I full admin to knowing gentoo and debian better these days but I
> suspect it's still the bloatware of the linux world.

I suspect you're probably right - Debian can give you a very small
install, but I couldn't care less - I'm installing on modern hardware,
not a 10 year old PC, so it's not much of an issue for me.

The right distro depends on your needs and limitations.

-- 
Barrie J. Bremner
baz-wiltslug [at] barriebremner.com 	http://barriebremner.com/