[ale] Linux Server distros

[Richard Kolkovich]

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On 07/22/06 20:57, Jim Popovitch published:
> Jim Popovitch wrote:
>> Richard Kolkovich wrote:
>>> If you do not care about "official" support, I would recommend Gentoo.
>>> I run it on my servers with no problems as long as you read before
>>> updating packages (but that is the case with most anything...updates can
>>> break things ;)).
>> ;-) I've seen those sort of issues even with "professional" distros.
>>
>>
>> Here's what I doing:
>>
>> I am setting up a few vmware server servers.  On the base install I 
>> don't need anything that vmware server doesn't need.  I don't 
>> particularly need LVM, but when using a RedHat distro (or derivative) 
>> LVM (and several other totally unnecessary things) must exist for the 
>> base install to exist. <- F**KING CRAZY!  

I have been playing with LVM recently on some new installs.  I see its
main benefit as being expansion of partitions.  If you know your distro
and application, you should know how much room you need on each
partition.  I think that a bit of planning of your partitions can
prevent need of the LVM overhead.

>> I don't need nfs, or nfs libs, 
>> hotplug (it's freaking server!), USB (who uses USB mice/drives/etc on a 
>> server?), DHCP (argh!).  It just amazes me that in this day and age of 
>> using Linux on so many _servers_, 

Hotplug and USB definitely should not be there, IMHO.  Someone else in
this thread mentioned USB KVMs.  I have not seen too many of those,
though my newest Dell servers did ship with USB KBs and mice.  I still
think that it should be kept to PS/2 to be able to completely exclude
the USB subsystem from your kernel.

>> it requires that the operator have a 
>> team of engineers to re-engineer a "professional" distribution in order 
>> to use it in their environment.  Part of the problem is that every 
>> distro tries to be everything to everybody.  Redhat Enterprise Linux, 
>> IMHO, is not a server distro, it's a workstation distro (but alas not a 
>> modern-day laptop distro).  Debian (and it's derivatives) comes closest 
>> to being a secure and small install... BUT vmware doesn't provide out of 
>> the box modules for Debian, therefore I have to install _development_ 
>> tools on a server just to get it to do what I need it to do.
>>
>> I hate Windows, BUT none of the above applies to using Windows... except 
>> that if I use Windows as a VMWare host I won't be able to sleep at 
>> night. ;-)
>>
>> I think there is a serious market for a Linux Server distro that is 
>> secure, stable, small, and doesn't have any dependencies on unnecessary 
>> crap.
> 
> One other thing, since this has turned into my rant... ;-)
> 
> On a box without a floppy drive (this *is* 2006) is it truly necessary 
> for Debian to try load a floppy driver a half-dozen times during the 
> install.
> 
> -Jim P.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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In short, I completely agree with your points, Jim, which is one reason
I usually install Gentoo (given the choice).  It is the easiest way to
me to control installed packages from the get-go, rather than
re-engineering it.

Re: another post on this thread, I will check out trustix.  It looks
pretty neat.  :)

- --

Richard Kolkovich
sarumont at sigil.org

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