Obviously stability is the most important factor for the people running nuclear experiments so they choose RHEL. Nevertheless, if I were them, I would consider trying Nix or Guix to potrntially turn the configs/builds into comparably strict math and making these reproducible.
Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
31–40 of 144 posts
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Rocky is done by the guy that started CentOS.
Correct. Although I don't think Rocky has nearly as much money, staff, or industry support as Alma does. The other issue is RH gets Cent 8/9 Stream CVE fixes out faster than either Alma or Rocky, at least so far.
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Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have insights. Alma is done by professionals for professionals (the hosting industry). Those guys were behind CentOS, and are running 70% of the internet. Rocky is an unpaid community effort.
No. Rocky is done by the guy that started CentOS.
He (gmk) didn't start it, but he certainly provided support/funding to it.
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Rocky is done by the guy that started CentOS.
Is he paid to develop it? Serious question, my CentOS boxes have been running for years and I'm not looking to upgrade so I'm not up to date.
Rocky Linux is developed by a large team, some who are paid too and some who are strictly volunteers, but yes, Gregory Kurtzer's own company (https://ciq.co) has invested quite a bit into Rocky Linux. (Many developers, FIPS validation alone is upwards of a million USD, etc)
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. Rocky is done by the guy that started CentOS.
Is he paid to develop it? Serious question, my CentOS boxes have been running for years and I'm not looking to upgrade so I'm not up to date.
He does not develop it whatsoever. Really all he does is talk, so basically zero development value. He certainly likes to take credit though for all the work all of rocky's volunteers do.
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. It's too bad because they used to support Scientific Linux, but stopped because CentOS was so popular... Anyway, I'm glad I went with Alma over Rocky, albeit for the wrong reasons (my daughter's name is Alma...)
You probably know this, but Alma means “soul” in Portuguese. Is this why you picked the name? I like it. I went with Ada myself (after Lovelace - wife only found-out why years later).
FWIW, it also means "apple" in several Turkic languages (Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Azerbaijani, and maybe others).
Uzbek and Turkish are also pretty close.
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a RHEL clone, so no. However, you can install runit or OpenRC if you want.
That doesn't solve the problem, because systemd developers have insinuated dependencies on it into multiple unrelated system components.
Linux developers have created dependencies on Linux. Portability is a lot of work and perfect portability does not exist.
If you think you don't want systemd, why don't you use BSD?
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#38Is AlmaLinux systemd-free?
You're asking if Redhat, the creator and main proponent of systemd, uses it in its distribution.
Use FreeBSD, Devuan or Alpine if you want production-grade Unixes without systemd.
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#39All this time I had thought that Rocky Linux was winning the fork war over Alma (in the fight to be the successor to CentOS), but this post might change that with a good chunk of the science community throwing their weight behind Alma. Do we have anyone else in the audience that has any insights over whether Alma is more prevalent over Rocky or is it the other way around? I know I can run Rocky Linux from DigitalOcea…
Wouldn't it make sense for Alma & Rocky to now combine their efforts?
Re: Fermilab/CERN recommendation for Linux distribution
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't solve the problem, because systemd developers have insinuated dependencies on it into multiple unrelated system components.
Linux developers have created dependencies on Linux. Portability is a lot of work and perfect portability does not exist. If you think you don't want systemd, why don't you use BSD?
> Linux developers have created dependencies on Linux.
Sorry, ignoring the rest of the thread: this statement isn't true even marginally. There are linux distributions that can operate on other kernels than Linux. Debian was my favourite choice for this with their HURD (https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/) and kFreeBSD (https://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/) implementation.
The GNU userland itself does not depend on Linux either.
You can run GNU utilities on MacOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD.