I'm a heavy CentOS user. The reality is, enterprise distributions of Linux like Slackware and CentOS tend be rock solid stable, but they aren't cutting edge. I wonder for example if a newer version of Crossover Linux Standard will support the mathematical fonts I need in Microsoft Word 2003 better? Can I run the newest version of Crossover Linux Standard on CentOS? The answer is probably no. The cutting edge Linux distributions are impressively stable, Fedora will work as a server system. Thing is, cutting edge distributions are unstable from the standpoint that the features they support are not necessarily appropriate for prime time yet. I don't know much about Mandriva but it sounds like it is closer to Fedora than say CentOS or Slackware. How often does Mandriva come out? Yearly? Semi annually? Monthly? The ideas that Enterprise distributions of Linux like Slackware and CentOS are the way to go are problematic from the standpoint that these distros clearly don't work as well for Desktop use as say Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint, and possibly also Mandriva. For a desktop system one needs to run the latest version of wine and the latest drivers, neither of which are necessarily stable.
I think anything shorter than a 1 year time period for a release doesn't make sense. A 10 year time period is a long time release where the feature set is going to get quite ancient by the time the next release comes on line. Linux needs to advance in certain areas and this can make enterprise distributions of Linux seem like poor choices compared to non enterprise distributions. Thing is, there is a trade off that must be recognized between being advanced and being stable/reliable. If Linux supports what you need to do today, CentOS and Slackware might be the best choices for you. If, however, you need the cutting edge mathematical font support in Word 2003 under Crossover Linux, then maybe Mandriva and a frequent update regimen is the way to go. Old 4.x versions of CentOS for example do not support the latest Dansguardian releases. I'm not sure when iptables started supporting user based packet filtering. Linux still needs to improve in some areas and generally speaking it is. A cutting edge Linux distribution can be a better choice on a server than a non cutting edge distribution depending on what the server has to do and how careful you are about avoiding the use of unstable features. Increasingly I need to think about switching from CentOS 5.x on my desktop to something else where Ubuntu hasn't seemed to be the right choice. _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
