[NTLUG:Discuss] Upgrading Redhat

[MadHat]

On Mon, 2003-09-15 at 11:09, JR Newsletters wrote:
> The other question I have for you is why continue with Red Hat when you 
> have Debian or Gentoo available to you which are, IMO, better than RH on 
> servers?  I've yet to see any programs that work under Red Hat not work 
> under Gentoo.


DISCLAIMER: This is not a religious war on distributions.  All of them
have their problems and everyone likes what they like for what ever
reason.  This is not intended to start any flames and my reasoning is
not meant to convince anyone to change their mind or sway them from
their own path to enlightenment (not the window manager).  These are
just my inner thoughts on this subject.

'Why I use RedHat' By MadHat

Usually I need to get a box setup in a hurry.  For instance my laptop is
a box I use daily, without fail.  When I got a new laptop, I had a day
to upgrade and migrate.  Now while I could choose any distribution from
the hundreds available, I chose RedHat.  First, it worked.  I just boot
up and go, no muss, no fuss.  Everything was detected and it worked.  I
just needed to tweak a few things.  Next, it is what I am familiar
with.  I have been using RedHat since 4.x days and it is comfortable.  I
did get my RHCE when work sent me there back in '99, but I haven't kept
it up because I don't care enough.  

Now, yes I could have used SuSE or Debian, or what ever, but I have my
reasons for not doing it.

SuSE is my second choice in most cases.  I like it, but it has a few
nuances I just can't seem to get past and can never remember what they
are until I install it.  Guess its time to play with it again.

Debian has never intrigued me.  Tried it a few times over the years and
just never seemed to offer me anything I didn't get with any other
distribution.

GenToo is cool, but OH MY GAWD...  unless you have days to install a
box, don't bother.  I like the idea of compiling everything from source
to make it faster/optimized, but I have better things to do with my time
than wait for X to compile, or to recompile gcc.

Slackware I have started using for servers more.  I like it overall.  I
don't do packages on my servers, and will install from source the
daemons I need.  Usually I just install ssh, apache, sendmail and
qpopper from source.  Oh and I will also do Perl from source.  Just a
habit and to make sure things are exactly the way I want with the
features I want.

Mandrake is just RedHat with 586 instead of 386 compiled binaries as far
as I am concerned (and I have never really noticed the difference).  I
personally would rather support RedHat considering how much they have
given back to the community over the years.  It's like I see PHP as
being a Perl wannabe, Mandrake is the RedHat wannabe in my eyes.  I just
like dealing with the thing I can manipulate to an Nth degree already.

I have to use "other" free OS's in my job and while I see why we use
them, and I can function perfectly fine on them, I find Linux to be more
complete in its offerings for my uses.

With all that said, I will say that I like most of the major
distributions, but RedHat does what I want and need the best and
fastest.  This is just for me.  I understand that people have had
issues, but I have been lucky enough to not have them, or just fixed
them without thinking about it.  Regardless of how screwed up it might
be, even RedHat is more stable, versatile and manageable/configurable
than some commercial OS's.  BTW, I left secure out on purpose because I
believe that all OS's are insecure until you lay your hands upon them
and make things right.

PS-DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be FLAME-BAIT.  These are my
opinions and nothing more.  This has nothing to do with reality the way
others see it, this is how my little world is and nothing more.

-- 
MadHat at Unspecific.com
`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here...'
   -- Lewis Carroll - _Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland_