[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Need Distro Recommendation, Please

[Brian]

On Thu, May 05, 2005 at 01:40:45PM -0500,  tr_data1 wrote:
> > There are just too many *well-tested* distros out there to risk 
> > hardware damage from an errant kernel configuration...
> 
> OK then. What distros (including version#) do you consider "well-tested"?
> I'm truly interested in the info, not just objecting to what you said.

TR--

"Well-tested" is a subjective term, so it makes sense to define it in
comparative terms.  Since there is really no way to directly compare
the QA processes of individual distro efforts, one way to look at it
is to measure the average time between releases.  This is the criteria
I use to make production-level decisions involving which Linux distro
to use; yours might be different.  I'm a firm believer in the "given
enough eyes, all bugs are shalllow" doctrine, and the length of time
between versions is a good measure of how long a specific version has
been exposed to enough eyes to eventually work out the major bugs. 

Here's some data I collected that demonstrates what I'm talking about.
Based strictly on this analysis, and assuming no other factors that
would affect the determination of "well-tested" (such as familiarity
with the distro on a specific hardware platform, known compatibility
issues, etc.), it is my belief that of the four, CentOS is the least
"well-tested" distro  (those who might argue that CentOS is a
descendent of a "well-tested" distro need to keep in mind that CentOS
is no different from a new version), followed by Mandriva, Slackware,
and finally Debian.  The difference in "well-testedness" between
Mandriva and Slack is certainly open to debate; this is the point
where I would consider other factors to differentiate the two.

Hopefully, this survives the formatting gods:

Mandrake                    Days between releases (days)
--------                    ----------------------------
2005LE 4/14/05              22*             
Move 10/6/04                190
10.1 9/16/04                20*
10.0 3/4/04                 196
9.2 10/14/03                142
9.1 3/25/03                 203
9.0 9/25/02                 181
8.2 3/18/02                 191
8.1 9/27/01                 172
                            ----
                Average     182

Slackware
---------
10.1 2/7/05                 88*
10.0 6/23/04                229
9.1 9/26/03                 271
9.0 3/18/03                 192
8.1 6/18/02                 273
8.0 7/1/01                  352
7.1 6/22/00                 374
7.0 10/25/99                241
4.0 5/17/99                 161
                            ----
                Average     261

CentOS
------
4.0 3/2/05                  65*
3.4 1/6/05                  55
3.3 9/20/04                 108
2.0 5/24/04                 119
                            ----
                Average     94

Debian
------
3.0 7/19/02                 1022*
2.2 8/15/00                 703
2.1 3/9/99                  525
2.0 7/23/98                 229
1.3 6/5/97                  413
                            ----
                Average     467

*outliers