Dumping Windows

Mike McCarty Mike.McCarty at sbcglobal.net
Mon Mar 27 19:18:55 UTC 2006


Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-03-27 at 02:50, Mike McCarty wrote:
> 
>>Les Mikesell wrote:
>>
>>>On Thu, 2006-03-23 at 17:59, John Summerfield wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>I'm sure someone administering 1300 users understands those things. 
>>>>Still, you don't want those nasty surprises when the software breaks. 
>>>>You want software that "just works" all the time, and Fedora Core doesn't,
>>>
>>>
>>>I'm not sure that's entirely fair.  While I agree that there are
>>
>>It is completely and entirely fair. I was criticising the reasoning,
>>not the decision.
> 
> 
> I wasn't replying to your post, but there is a tradeoff in any

Sorry.

> case.  While some other distro might make a better server, you
> have to consider what 1300 users will do to you if you try
> to replace their desktop apps with the 2-year old versions
> that come with the enterprise distros.  If you look through

I am aware of that. Managing a large system has, as some of
its priorities...

	(1) suitability (can run the kinds of apps we need)
	(2) availability (is "up" when I need it)
	(3) security (data are kept private and undamaged)
	(4) stability (rarely changes operating procedure)

There are others, but that list certainly contains some of the
top priorities. One might argue with the exact order, but
certainly none of these would get tossed off the list.

I used to be chief admin of the largest installation of HP 3000
computers in the USA, with perhaps 1000 or so users, for a
marketing research firm, in the mid 1980s. We also had a couple
of IBM minis (1130 and Sys 370) and a UNIX like machine (VAX/
Mt.Xinu). So I understand and appreciate your argument on this
point perfectly.

IMO, FC is not the distro of choice in this matter *precisely*
because it is not stable (in the sense of [4] above). Release,
release, release, pressure to move on, etc.

My criticism in this matter would be the initial selection,
not the decision to stay with an installed distro. In any case,
even if I inherited such a decision from a previous admin,
I'd take actions to help protect me. I'd have a separate
machine not in the normal server loop for test installs,
and I'd delay acceptance of any new releases of software.
I'd also move on to Fedora Legacy, in an attempt to get some
of the stability necessary.

> the fedora archives for problems and ignore the ones caused
> by selinux settings and the ones that would have been avoided
> by testing updates before applying to a critical machine I
> don't think you'll find that many more than any other
> distribution.

Well, I'm not going to opine on that matter.

Mike
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