Fedora *is* for servers! [was Re: Need advice]

[Thomas Cameron]

On 04/18/2014 11:33 AM, Rick Stevens wrote:
> On 04/18/2014 05:25 AM, Ralf Corsepius issued this missive:
>> On 04/18/2014 02:10 PM, Matthew Miller wrote:
>>> On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 11:40:00PM -0400, Digimer wrote:
>>>>> We are developing internal software using MySql dB and are planning to
>>>>> use Fedora for the server.
>>>> Please don't do that. Fedora is awesome, but it's a desktop OS, not
>>>> a server OS. The life cycle is way to short and it's not hardened
>>>
>>> This is not true. Please stop repeating it. Fedora is not a
>>> desktop-only OS,
>>> and can be (and *is*) used in many serious server contexts, even in
>>> production. You need to know what you're getting into and be willing
>>> to cope
>>> with the 13-month lifecycle and community support model, but it's a
>>> perfectly awesome fit for many uses, including possibly this one.
>>
>> May I repeat one of my Fedora mantras, I have been reiterating since
>> Fedora day #1: Fedora's life-cycle is too short!
> 
> And what we've been saying for years: Fedora is a test bed for newer
> technologies. It has never been touted as a general use system. 

Really? That's weird, because I just went to https://fedoraproject.org/
and the very first page there says "Fedora is a fast, stable, and
powerful operating system for everyday use built by a worldwide
community of friends. It's completely free to use, study, and share."

You and I must have a very different interpretation of "for everyday use."

> It is
> because of these new technologies that it has a short life span.

Short life span != not good for daily use. Or general purpose use. Or
even server use in some circumstances.

>> IMO, extending it would enhance Fedora's usability and suitability in
>> many use-cases and would significantly increase attractivity to users.
> 
> I tend to agree that the 6 month cycle is a pain in the arse, but if
> you want stability you use RHEL or CentOS or another distro. Fedora is,
> by definition, bleeding edge.
> 
> The concept is that once we're all done beating the crap out of Fedora
> AND it becomes stable AND there are enough feature improvements
> accumulated, it gets snapshotted, tuned, tweaked and becomes the next
> major RHEL version (and, by diffusion, the next major CentOS version).
> 
> If you use Fedora, get used to the fact that you have joined the rest of
> us experimental lab rats testing this technology. You will get
> bloodied, angered, frustrated, and confused using Fedora. That's the
> nature of the beast. We are, essentially, beta testers.

That is neither the charter of the project, nor my personal experience.
I use Fedora for my daily driver at home, I use it for dev work at work,
my 7 & 11 year old daughters use it for daily driving on their laptops
(https://fedoraproject.org/en/using/life/thomascameron.html), and with
*very* limited exceptions, it Just Works(TM). With a modicum of
planning, upgrading from one distro to the next is super easy, so the
"it only lasts 6 months" thing is kind of a non-issue.

Quit referring to Fedora as a beta. It's factually incorrect and it
serves neither the Fedora community nor the greater Open Source and
Linux communities. That FUD makes people avoid even trying Fedora and
that's BS. Quit it.

Thomas