Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
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Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
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Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#2> [W]e need reliability and predictability over a large variety of systems over many years. We need strong support by most of the world's software vendors and open source project. We need documentation, tools, and global resources for the most commonly used systems.
In which of these does Debain fall short?
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#3Redhat puts a lot of effort into building its enterprise distro. Yeah, it's mostly out of FOSS parts, I get that, but distros are nontrivial and costly undertakings.
I've always had a bit of a problem with Centos, which as I understand takes Redhat's work, removes the proprietary parts, and redistributes for free-as-in-beer - perhaps depriving Redhat of a sale or two. It's not exactly theft, but not sporting either.
Would somebody straighten me out? Am I wrong to avoid Centos based on social principle? What does Redhat think of Centos?
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#4> [W]e need reliability and predictability over a large variety of systems over many years. We need strong support by most of the world's software vendors and open source project. We need documentation, tools, and global resources for the most commonly used systems. In which of these does Debain fall short?
I'm a user of Debian but can see why some people prefer Redhat, and I've used it myself.
Perhaps the main difference is that there is more official vendor support for Redhat i.e. device driver RPM's etc. This could be something like an LSI RAID card perhaps, or a filesystem like Stornext. I know you can often find community built software/drivers for Debian but some organisations and people prefer an "official" source.
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#5It seems that you are not familiar with debian's testing program.
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#6Redhat puts a lot of effort into building its enterprise distro. Yeah, it's mostly out of FOSS parts, I get that, but distros are nontrivial and costly undertakings. I've always had a bit of a problem with Centos, which as I understand takes Redhat's work, removes the proprietary parts, and redistributes for free-as-in-beer - perhaps depriving Redhat of a sale or two. It's not exactly theft, but not sporting either.…
RedHat loves CentOS. To quote their CEO
> CentOS is one of the reasons that the RHEL ecosystem is the default. It helps to give us an ubiquity that RHEL might otherwise not have if we forced everyone to pay to use Linux. So, in a micro sense we lose some revenue, but in a broader sense, CentOS plays a very valuable role in helping to make Red Hat the de facto Linux.[0]
[0]http://readwrite.com/2013/08/13/red-hat-ceo-centos-open-sour...
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#7> [W]e need reliability and predictability over a large variety of systems over many years. We need strong support by most of the world's software vendors and open source project. We need documentation, tools, and global resources for the most commonly used systems. In which of these does Debain fall short?
Compared to RHEL/CentOS the Debian release cycle is actually very short, with support for an older version ending just one year after the release of a new stable version. So in average you will only have support for about 3 years for each release, compared to at least 10 years for RHEL. That's why there has been some discussion about a possible Debian LTS release: http://lwn.net/Articles/565007/
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#8> [W]e need reliability and predictability over a large variety of systems over many years. We need strong support by most of the world's software vendors and open source project. We need documentation, tools, and global resources for the most commonly used systems. In which of these does Debain fall short?
Compared to RHEL/CentOS the Debian release cycle is actually very short, with support for an older version ending just one year after the release of a new stable version. So in average you will only have support for about 3 years for each release, compared to at least 10 years for RHEL. That's why there has been some discussion about a possible Debian LTS release: http://lwn.net/Articles/565007/
Makes sense.
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#9FreeBSD has a very stable core distribution with an up-tp-date rolling release "ports" system for additional software. It's great for these purposes. It also has excellent documentation, stable native ZFS, and compatibility with Linux binaries.
Re: Tech Choices - Why we use Centos instead of Debian / Ubuntu
#10I see no discussion of package management in here, which is kind of a bummer. My experience with yum has been pretty crummy and I don't think it's improved over the last several years. That alone should drive someone developing software away from working on that platform.
Centos & Red Hat are great if you have a single package you need to deploy to a machine and all the dependencies are already there or easy to pull down from yum. You get the advantage of not having a capricious OOMKiller process that can randomly take down your system. But if you're actually in the process of building something, working on Centos is just a pain in the ass.