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

[Stuart Johnston]

Wouldn't CentOS 3.3 => 3.4 be considered a maintenance release?  Roughly 
equivalent to Debian 3.0r4 => 3.0r5?


Brian wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
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