OT: OS choice for dedicated server

[Matthew D. Fuller]

Hi Tim!

> Of my choices below, what would you recommend that'll be suitable
> for the next 12-24 months.  Out of the list below, I am really only
> familiar with FreeBSD 4.10, so comments/suggestions about the others
> would be greatly welcome.

Well, roughly:

> Fedora Core Release 1
> FreeBSD 5.2.1

I'd skip these, since they're (as already mentioned) superceded by
newer and generally nicer versions.


> Cent-OS (Redhat compatible Linux I think)

As somebody else mentioned, this is basically RHEL, and you'd probably
be better with the Fedora stream if you go that way.


So it'd probably among these  (note FreeBSD 4.11 over 4.10 in a few
weeks as well).

> Fedora Core Release 2
> FreeBSD 4.10
> FreeBSD 5.3

I personally dislike Red Hat in general anyway and so don't really
have any direct experience with Fedora.  But the Linux people I know
range from intense dislike to great affection for Fedora as desktops.
As servers, though, they all seem somewhat lukewarm about it.

So, between the FreeBSD streams; if it were me, I'd probably go 5.3
(rather, 5.3 and jump up to the latest RELENG_5 to pick up some
bugfixes).  5.2(.1) was somewhat iffy, and I'd have stuck with 4 on a
server (particularly one I couldn't put my hands on), but 5.3 seemed
to settle much better.  The kernel differences don't matter TOO much
for a normal (read: underloaded :) server, but the updated userland is
a nice plus, aside from the matter of support going forward.  Of
course, 4 isn't going to entirely die off within your stated horizon
either.


So, basically, a bunch of paragraphs of hemming and hawing to get
around to saying absolutely nothing conclusive.  How consitent can you
get?   8-}


-- 
Matthew Fuller     (MF4839)   |  fullermd at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Systems/Network Administrator |  http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/

"The only reason I'm burning my candle at both ends, is because I
      haven't figured out how to light the middle yet"