Real benefits of RHEL over Fedora?

Tim ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au
Mon Jun 6 14:07:44 UTC 2011


On Mon, 2011-06-06 at 09:22 -0400, Alex wrote:
> None of the servers I will be building will have Xorg installed, so
> this should make upgrading significantly easier, should I choose the
> fedora path.

I think it's things more like, the hassles of dealing with making sure
no stored mail is lost (if you use IMAP), or uncollected mail (if
clients use POP) when you update.  More so than things like X.  The
presence, or lack, of X doesn't really make much difference to that
problem.

> This is a pretty critical server in the role that it will
> be implemented, so stability is a concern

"Critical" and "stability" would be two keywords that suggest *don't*
use Fedora for your server.

It's anything but stable.  In that it keeps on changing, not that it
crashes all the time, like Windows.

> but it's really only performing basic email and web functions which 
> are pretty well tested in fedora.

My internal mail and web server is using Fedora.  It's still on Fedora
Core 4, because any time I've considered having to (a) update in place
and not lose anything (ignoring the ability to claw things back from a
backup), or (b) get everything working again on a new release (which
would entail many MB of mail being moved over, checking webserver
scripts still work, sorting out another local search engine for the
webserver), I just throw my hands up in despair at the thought of the
work I'd have to do.  So it keeps on chugging away on an old system.

I find having to update client computers just as annoying, as they
inevitably have custom configurations, forgotten passwords, scads of
local data... 

If I do get around to updating/replacing the local mail server, it'll
probably be with CentOS.  It has a long lifespan.  And it's based on
something similar enough to what I'm already using that I won't be
floundering about to manage it.

> - It appears RH does not add new features through the seven year
> lifespan of RHEL, only security and bug fixes

Well, Fedora seems pretty similar.  i.e. You're unlikely to get the next
release of OpenOffice, or Firefox, or Gnome, or whatever, on your
existing Fedora installation.  Such major change would be applied to the
next Fedora release.

> - I believe the fedora lifespan for security updates is at least a
> couple of years, correct?

Each Fedora release is about half a year apart.  Updates are available
for the current and prior release.  A few weeks after a new release, the
one second release ago is totally abandoned.  No updates for it, of any
sort, are released.

e.g. Fedora 15 has just come out.  Fedora 14 was the current release.
Fedora 13 was the prior release.  Shortly Fedora 13's updates will
cease.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
read messages from the public lists.





More information about the users mailing list