[NTLUG:Discuss] RedHat 6.1 (+ dists in general)

[Kevin Brannen]

Steve Baker wrote:
> 
> Kevin Brannen wrote:
> 
> > I'm not trying to say that SuSE is the perfect distro.  As I pointed
> > out, there is at least 1 package that they are "behind" on.
> 
> Well, they have *production* schedules to meet.  SuSE wanted to ship
> my Tux the Penguin game - and I made sure they had the very latest
> version in time for their production deadline...by the time the
> SuSE 6.2 CD came out, the code they were shipping was TEN releases
> out of date.  That CD will be around for many months - by the time
> 6.3 finally appears, Tux will have moved on another ten releases.

Yes they have schedules, and you have a good example.  However, :-) in
my case, since SuSE6.0 at least, they have been shipping latex2html
v96.1 (or something like that), while v98.x has been out for over a year
(which has bug fixes I *must* have).  And I wrote them right after I
received SuSE6.0 and told them.  And v96.1 is still on the SuSE6.2
CD...sigh...  So I just keep my newer tarball around, don't install
theirs, and life goes on.  I will come to their defense and point out
that this is the only package on the CDs that I've found (that affect
me), which seems like a pretty good record to me, considering how fast
the Linux world moves.

Back to the original topic, there's a very good possibility that I've
talked work (my client) into using Linux for a firewall and local DNS
server (and maybe other expanding roles. :-)  They will probably go with
RedHat so they can get support, so I'll be able to better compare the
distros then.

What if the group created a chart/list with:
* name
* current version number
* current retail price (& maybe several local stores that sell it)
* if it's a base distro or like another one (e.g. Mandrake is similiar
to RH)
* what's it's security is like (or things you need to secure down)
* various pros & cons (this is touchy, but stuff like "has commercial
support",
  "easier than normal install program", "easier for newbies", ...)
* other stuff...

Then Chris or whomever is working the LIP (?) table can hand out this
sheet [call it an "Overview of Linux Distributions"?] after his 15
seconds that he has to talk with them.  Just a thought...


Kevin