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On Wed, 1 Oct 2008 11:55:21 +0100 |
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"Kerin Millar" <kerframil@×××××.com> wrote: |
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|
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> Well, this post turned out to be a lot longer than I had anticipated. |
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> But I've seen so many comments that allude to Gentoo somehow being |
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> unfit for purpose because it doesn't freeze off a so-called "stable" |
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> tree so many times that, frankly, I get fed up with it and figured |
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> that something had to be said. Gentoo, whilst certainly having its |
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> fair share of foibles, doesn't get enough credit for the things that |
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> it does well and the things that it does right. If one doesn't like |
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> the way that Gentoo does things then there are surely other distros |
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> out there that will meet one's expectations, such as they are. |
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|
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Right, imagine a live server getting hit by the expat problem, or a |
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major gcc/glibc change? They hurt, they seriously hurt. |
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That's what the "static package" people are referring to. A server that |
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can be set up, and once running should need minimal updating, for |
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security reasons. You can't do that safely in Gentoo. |
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|
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Some people are happy with regularly changing packages, restarting |
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services every month because a new version of the server is in tree, |
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dealing with the breakage induced by things like python upgrades, bash |
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upgrades, portage upgrades, gcc upgrades, ... |
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|
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But for a 24/7 uptime on a high load server, most people consider those |
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to be unacceptable. Now Gentoo can be got to not do those, but as |
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anyone will tell you, updating a Gentoo box after a year is painful, |
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and when you have to update to cover a critical security hole? Now try updating a Debian box after a year? |
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Don't mistake one awkward piece of software which is not supported in |
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the other distros for the general properties of those distros. Gentoo |
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is good for tweaking, it's good for doing "Your own thing", that does |
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not make it automagically better than Debian or RHEL, or SLES in the |
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high-stability stakes. And, sorry to say this, one nice anecdote |
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doesn't either. |
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|
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YMMV |
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Rob. |