Linux Distro Question

[melbert2002]

We are planning to roll out a Linux box to host a Big Brother server. I was wondering what modern Distrobutions are people using? I am being somewhat cheap and looking for the free version before I think about paying for the server licence and going live. I would prefer not to go with an eval licence either. I may have to go over the 30 days for the eval. Anyways, I have tried SUSE 9.2, I was wondering if Fedora Core 3 is alright to use in a corporate environment? Both in licencing and stability. Or is there another distro that I can get good support for in a corporate enviornment.

Thanks

Mel

 

[azzazzello]

Fedora Core 2 is good. Looking for support, you can get Red Hat AS 3 (or 4) for a decent price

 

[melbert2002]

Cool,
I was wondering, how legitimate is it to use Fedora Core in a corporate environment? Are there any licencing issues? My boss is going to want to know.

Thanks again

Mel

 

[lgarner]

It's fine to use, for whatever purpose. Personally, I use CentOS (

http://www.centos.org)

for many things since our main systems are RHEL.

 

[azzazzello]

Fedore Core is fine to use. I have not had any problems with it. The problems arise when you put, say, a commercial application on it that says it supports Red Hat. Then, application craps out, you go to the vendor asking for support, and they say "Well, you are not running it on Red Hat! We don't support Fedora Core!". That's annoying. But if you are not going to be facing that situation, FC is very robust

 

[MichealC4]

Me, I can't stand RPM-based systems (though SuSE was nice), I use Debian for my servers, and I hear Ubuntu is really good for desktops.

----------------------------
"Will work for bandwidth" - Thinkgeek T-shirt

 

[ericbrunson]

Nothing like tossing out an unsubstantiated bias to add nothing to the discussion.

 

[MichealC4]

Actually, I was giving a personal opinion. I even mentioned that I like SuSE which was, last I checked, RPM based. But at any rate, since I misread the original question, feel free to ignore that post.

As for Fedora Core 3, AFAICS, getting the proper licensing shouldn't be a problem and stability seems to be find from what I've read.

----------------------------
"Will work for bandwidth" - Thinkgeek T-shirt

 

[Kozusnik]

I had my daughter running K12LTSP which is built on FC3. It seemed fine. I personally prefer Mandrake.

One thing to remember, if you're running in a "server" environment, only run text mode. Install ssh and do your work remotely. If your client has X installed (either Linux or some x-windows app), you can run the guis from the client over ssh.

I like to install KDE or Gnome at first, then change my /etc/inittab to run level 3 (text mode with network) (id:3:initdefault rather than 5 (GUI). It saves on memory and eliminates some of the issues you may have leavin X on. Where I work, I run Mandrake 9.1, 10.0, and Red Hat 7.3 (I know its old, but it works for what we need).

I don't believe there are any license issues with what you're doing.

Good luck,
Mark

 

[jstreich]

Fedora Core is free and generally has all the new and "cool" packages that aren't stable enough for Enterprise. It's not an eval, and is completely FOSS. Enerprise has some licensing for RedHat applications, but most of the license goes to the support contract.

Debian is my personal favorite as well. I just love apt.

[plug=shameless]

http://game-master.us/phpx-3.4.0/

[/plug]

 

[azzazzello]

you can now use apt on nearly all Linux distros you know...

 

[LawnBoy]

I'm guessing you didn't care for SuSE 9.2? Have you looked at Novell's Open Enterprise Server (it's still based on SuSE, though)? I've heard a lot of good about FC3 but I've not used it.

Personally I like RPMs, but I've never used apt; so my opinion is not worth the time it took you to read it.