Re: converting to RHEL8...
On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 3:26 PM Konstantin Olchanski wrote: > > Welcome to my "convert to RHEL8" blog. As you might know, I have been running > Red Hat, SL and CentOS machines for about 25 years now. Lacking SL-8, > latest incarnation of this series is CentOS-8 and now powers-that-be > instruct us to use RHEL-8 instead. So, > > Here we go. Conversion from CentOS-8 to RHEL-8 in 5 easy steps. Identically named RPM's do not necessarily have identical contents. To do a really *thorough* switch, you need to reinstall *everything*. I used to publish scripts for this, for switching from RHEL to CentOS to Scientific Linux and other combinations. Nico Kadel-Garcia
Re: Pondering a switch to Debian
There are several issues with IBM RHEL clones, ultimately controlled by what is termed the Nazgul below (presumably a reference to the fictional entities: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Nazg-25C3-25BBl=DwIDaQ=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A=nTjqdNvLHGUa2BQ5UsMUyvKD_BqcIQgVCd1DVvdlzDg=6U4Ha5dld83V2VaQLvx2ZWBL-I2zQZdYozUJ6C87tl0= ). For better or worse, but so far "for better", I have switched to Ubuntu LTS current (20.04.2 as this is written), not Debian. Ubuntu, as with the old RHEL, has internal "professional" support and development; LTS is used in the "real" world as an "enterprise" distro. My reason -- and after much internal discussion and debate -- is that a 10 year lifecycle is only as meaningful as IBM will allow the reality of this statement. As new hardware, architecture, and software (including "systems" applications) emerge, without "updates" and "backports", only "obsolete" systems will be supported from the actual IBM RH sources (not executables, and not supported) that need to be built. Updates for current hardware, etc., will need to come from ElRepo, Epel, etc., unless (almost) all EL clone distros come together to do what IBM RH may not be doing under the IBM Nazgul. Is IBM trustworthy? As a for-profit corporation, absolutely -- to make whatever financial achievements it plans, subject only to regulations. Is it trustworthy to keep promises, such as CentOS? -- the track record of IBM (or many other such vendors) does not inspire confidence in "trustworthiness". If the CentOS situation significantly cost revenue or market share, then indeed IBM RH would be "trustworthy". Will the CentOS RHEL situation cost IBM market share? Probably not -- the CERN Fermilab HEP community represents not that much market share. On 2/3/21 5:03 PM, Vinícius Ferrão wrote: I will not move to Debian. RHEL clones have 10 years of lifecycle, AlmaLinux just dropped it’s beta today. So there’s no reason to move to Debian or Ubuntu. On 3 Feb 2021, at 21:52, Keith Lofstrom wrote: Having been burned by IBM before, and with no guarantee that "Long-term Redhat for individuals" will survive IBM's legal department into the far future --- I'm thinking about abandoning 25 years of Redhat experience and switching to Debian, while my aging brain can still handle change. Debian - yikes! Thinking about - not decided, though I halted work on a server upgrade to CentOS 8 while I wait for the dust to settle. Rocky in April is another option, but if IBM goes after them, they will be a wet spot on the floor. So - who else is contemplating a move to Debian? I very much hope to stay connected to the "scientific" aspect of our community. Making big changes together with other science computationalists would be easier. Easier still would be staying with an RPM distro, IF it remained useful and legal and affordable for our kind of computing. An e-commerce and corporate infrastructure focused distro, not so much. Keith P.S. I remember the Red Hat booth at OSCON 2014, after the Borging of CentOS, where I was assured that they would support CentOS into the distant future. That "assurance" survived the IBM acquisition by 18 months. What changes will 5 more years of IBM (and their formidable lega department, called the Nazgul by other technology lawyers) result in? -- Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com
Re: Pondering a switch to Debian
On Wed, Feb 03, 2021 at 04:52:54PM -0800, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > > So - who else is contemplating a move to Debian? > Count me in. All ARM stuff is already Debian (Ubuntu/Raspbian/Raspios). Tomorrow, I am converting my 3 ARM machines running CentOS-7 to Raspios, next day, I am converting my 8 or so 32-bit-only VME processors from SL6 to Debian (32-bit). If we could run RedHat-flavour stuff on all our hardware, there could be a question. But running Debian-flavour stuff on everything and RedHat-flavour only on x64_64? > > I very much hope to stay connected to the "scientific" > aspect of our community. Making big changes together > with other science computationalists would be easier. > I figure we stick together on this mailing list here. > > Easier still would be staying with an RPM distro, IF ... > ... if they did not mess with RPM (yum replaced with dnf) and made it easier to build RPM packages. For installing cross-platform scripts, I am switching from RPM to "git clone; make install (installs to /opt)". -- Konstantin Olchanski Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow! Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada
Re: Pondering a switch to Debian
I will not move to Debian. RHEL clones have 10 years of lifecycle, AlmaLinux just dropped it’s beta today. So there’s no reason to move to Debian or Ubuntu. > On 3 Feb 2021, at 21:52, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > > Having been burned by IBM before, and with no guarantee > that "Long-term Redhat for individuals" will survive IBM's > legal department into the far future --- I'm thinking about > abandoning 25 years of Redhat experience and switching to > Debian, while my aging brain can still handle change. > > Debian - yikes! > > Thinking about - not decided, though I halted work on a > server upgrade to CentOS 8 while I wait for the dust to > settle. Rocky in April is another option, but if IBM > goes after them, they will be a wet spot on the floor. > > So - who else is contemplating a move to Debian? > > I very much hope to stay connected to the "scientific" > aspect of our community. Making big changes together > with other science computationalists would be easier. > > Easier still would be staying with an RPM distro, IF it > remained useful and legal and affordable for our kind of > computing. An e-commerce and corporate infrastructure > focused distro, not so much. > > Keith > > P.S. I remember the Red Hat booth at OSCON 2014, after the > Borging of CentOS, where I was assured that they would > support CentOS into the distant future. That "assurance" > survived the IBM acquisition by 18 months. What changes > will 5 more years of IBM (and their formidable lega > department, called the Nazgul by other technology lawyers) > result in? > > > -- > Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com
Pondering a switch to Debian
Having been burned by IBM before, and with no guarantee that "Long-term Redhat for individuals" will survive IBM's legal department into the far future --- I'm thinking about abandoning 25 years of Redhat experience and switching to Debian, while my aging brain can still handle change. Debian - yikes! Thinking about - not decided, though I halted work on a server upgrade to CentOS 8 while I wait for the dust to settle. Rocky in April is another option, but if IBM goes after them, they will be a wet spot on the floor. So - who else is contemplating a move to Debian? I very much hope to stay connected to the "scientific" aspect of our community. Making big changes together with other science computationalists would be easier. Easier still would be staying with an RPM distro, IF it remained useful and legal and affordable for our kind of computing. An e-commerce and corporate infrastructure focused distro, not so much. Keith P.S. I remember the Red Hat booth at OSCON 2014, after the Borging of CentOS, where I was assured that they would support CentOS into the distant future. That "assurance" survived the IBM acquisition by 18 months. What changes will 5 more years of IBM (and their formidable lega department, called the Nazgul by other technology lawyers) result in? -- Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com
