Fedora Core 2 questions / concerns

[Nifty Hat Mitch]

On Sun, Sep 12, 2004 at 03:19:09PM -0700, admin at usachurch.com wrote:

> >> reason to upgrade in and of itself.  Has anyone setup a FC2 server
> >> with SELinux?
...
> >upcoming FC3 (late October) is a good candidate that SELinux will have
> >enabled.
...
> Thanks for the info Alexander.  Do you think now that FC2 has been
> out a while (and I'm guessing has has many of its packages updated)
> is FC2 running better with SELinux enabled?

In my experience basic FC2 with and without SELinux 
are of equal stability and speed.

Currently FC2+updates is in good shape.  In some regards FC2 is equal
to or better than FC1 was.  If there is a problem in FC2 and you 
have not reported it for the  FC3 folks to work on ... please do so.

About SELinux, I might comment that the learning curve for SELinux
requires a bit of work to do interesting things on a server.

Since SELinux has a 'permissive' mode it is possible to install it and
by watching /var/log/messages experiment with this extended model.  I
have found that not all packages are SELinux aware at this time so
some work is required if you want to run with enforcing turned on.
i.e. it is easy and painless to work on it.

I am not sure what spare hardware you have or what your goals are but
since the FC3 release is close and upgrades are hard work I would make
a list and weigh the options.  Spare hardware lets you test some
things that matter to you.

Points to weigh.
     FC1-->FC2 is a bit of work
	  Three big changes are bumps in the road for some.
		kernel upgrade to 2.6 is a big deal for some
		the X-windows upgrade is a bigger deal but 
		graphics drivers are in better shape now.
		IMAPD (you said server) changes are interesting.

     FC3 should install cleaner than FC2 did.  Both updates
	  and clean installs should have better results.

     FC3t1 is out.  It is a good time to try updates and other
          things that matter to you.   The package set is 98% firm.


My recommendation is to use one of the <$500 or less systems that are
now on sale for students and do some testing on FC3t1+.


-- 
	T o m  M i t c h e l l 
	In the USA, vote informed, Nov 2004.