Re: [suse-security] SUSE 9.0 Pro Production Quality?
I had a discussion with my local LUG and a member had some interesting threads to share. Basically it showed that SUSE 9.0 is not really a production level version. For production level use, it is recommended to go with the Enterprise version of SUSE. Has other people got this impression? My concern is that my company can't afford to purchase any more software at this time so would I be better off looking at something like Debian? I know this is kind of off topic, but basically I am curious if 9.0 Pro is secure and stable enough for my organization needs.
Debian is always a good choice if you use stable tree of the distribution. Fresh ISO's can be downloaded for free. Before Debian is released it is well tested. If the security-team thinks some stuff is not stable it get's off the stable tree. This means you got to get this software from somewhere different and then the system is not anymore a stable distribution. Stable means tested stable (= secure). Testing means beta-packages. Gentoo is a good choice if you want to have a fast and stable system, but it means much more work to do and is intended for peolpe with more linux-knowledge. All packages are compiled by hand and this is a reason why the distribution last longer for installing (you can choose how much you want to compile or if you use pre-compiled packages). All packages you compile gain a performanceboost, because they are compiled for your hardware. Because you get sourcepackages you always get the latest software. Gentoo is free for download. If you are not experienced enough you use SLES and gain the benefits of the mentenance included in the price. So it's your choice if you want a stable, fast or easy to configure distribution. The security depends always on the person behind the monitor (not on the distribution). I would choose debian with a 2.4.x kernel (it installs only needed packages - no commend to that :)).
Sometimes I have the impression that the SuSE Professional releases are beta (and light) versions of the next SLES version.... Maybe I am wrong but this is a huge IMHO.
The focus of SUSE Professional are experienced (home and development) users.
If you need business strength software for production use, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is more suited for you.
Ciao, Marcus
That's not an impression. SLES is always based on the latest stable release of a SuSE distribution (for SLES 8 if may be 8.1). The stable distributions are always not ending with a "0" after the point. This were 7.3 and 8.1 afaik and were used by SLES 7 and 8. So maybe 9.1 will not be used for SLES 9, because it's the first distro with 2.6.x kernel. Based on my experience only the first stable release of a SuSE distribution is used for SLES. One advantage of SLES is the mentenance and supportweb, the other is a more configureable yast-version with much more options, than in the Pro version (which makes a difference in the price). Another difference is the certification of hardware which runs with the distributions. This is sometimes altered by the bad quality of the latest updates. I didn't right now test SLES 8.0 - a reseller I know got it, but I didn't test it right now. I tested and installed SuSE Office Server for him and was disappointed because of missing packages (for a small office as firewall and samba/printserver it is o.k., but not for more). If I buy such software (which is more expensive, than Pro) I want to have the same functionality than the pro-version plus the benefits of mentenance. If I get less I spent to much money for things I by myself can do by hand on the pro-version with even more packages on the list. Philippe
Just to sort of hop in here and piss off the Debian lovers, but you do know Linux is a Kernel right? My SUSE box is solid is a rock, and never slows down. How would Debian be more stable? I've used both and I stick with SUSE and Slackware. I don't like Gentoo either. Debian and Gentoo are like the only two Linux Distros out that have ever had their servers broken into. On Friday 10 September 2004 05:13, Philippe Vogel wrote:
I had a discussion with my local LUG and a member had some interesting threads to share. Basically it showed that SUSE 9.0 is not really
a production level version. For production level use, it is recommended
to go with the Enterprise version of SUSE. Has other people got
this impression? My concern is that my company can't afford to purchase
any more software at this time so would I be better off looking at something like Debian? I know this is kind of off topic, but basically I am curious if 9.0 Pro is secure and stable enough for my organization needs.
Debian is always a good choice if you use stable tree of the distribution. Fresh ISO's can be downloaded for free. Before Debian is released it is well tested. If the security-team thinks some stuff is not stable it get's off the stable tree. This means you got to get this software from somewhere different and then the system is not anymore a stable distribution. Stable means tested stable (= secure). Testing means beta-packages.
Gentoo is a good choice if you want to have a fast and stable system, but it means much more work to do and is intended for peolpe with more linux-knowledge. All packages are compiled by hand and this is a reason why the distribution last longer for installing (you can choose how much you want to compile or if you use pre-compiled packages). All packages you compile gain a performanceboost, because they are compiled for your hardware. Because you get sourcepackages you always get the latest software. Gentoo is free for download.
If you are not experienced enough you use SLES and gain the benefits of the mentenance included in the price.
So it's your choice if you want a stable, fast or easy to configure distribution. The security depends always on the person behind the monitor (not on the distribution). I would choose debian with a 2.4.x kernel (it installs only needed packages - no commend to that :)).
Sometimes I have the impression that the SuSE Professional releases are beta (and light) versions of the next SLES version.... Maybe I am wrong but this is a huge IMHO.
The focus of SUSE Professional are experienced (home and development)
users.
If you need business strength software for production use, SUSE Linux
Enterprise
Server is more suited for you.
Ciao, Marcus
That's not an impression. SLES is always based on the latest stable release of a SuSE distribution (for SLES 8 if may be 8.1).
The stable distributions are always not ending with a "0" after the point. This were 7.3 and 8.1 afaik and were used by SLES 7 and 8. So maybe 9.1 will not be used for SLES 9, because it's the first distro with 2.6.x kernel. Based on my experience only the first stable release of a SuSE distribution is used for SLES.
One advantage of SLES is the mentenance and supportweb, the other is a more configureable yast-version with much more options, than in the Pro version (which makes a difference in the price). Another difference is the certification of hardware which runs with the distributions. This is sometimes altered by the bad quality of the latest updates.
I didn't right now test SLES 8.0 - a reseller I know got it, but I didn't test it right now. I tested and installed SuSE Office Server for him and was disappointed because of missing packages (for a small office as firewall and samba/printserver it is o.k., but not for more). If I buy such software (which is more expensive, than Pro) I want to have the same functionality than the pro-version plus the benefits of mentenance. If I get less I spent to much money for things I by myself can do by hand on the pro-version with even more packages on the list.
Philippe
participants (2)
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Allen
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Philippe Vogel