Re: Do all versions of Linux come with file server ?

From: Ian J Cottee (ian_at_cottee.org)
Date: 10/25/03 

Date: 25 Oct 2003 13:19:03 +0900

Keith Clark <clarkphotography@hotmail.com> writes:

> On Thu, 23 Oct 2003 09:09:33 +0900, Ian J Cottee wrote:
>
> > Keith Clark <clarkphotography@hotmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> There's too much epmasis in this and other topics about "does Linux COME
> >> WITH prorgam XYZ".
> >>
> >> RedHat does come with Samaba. But even if it doesn't it's free software,
> >> go and download it, it's only 20 MB or so.
> >>
> >> The same goes for a lot of useful Linux apps that may or may not "come
> >> with" a distro. If it doesn't "come with it" and you want it, go get it.
> >>
> >> Like Kino, which is an awesome video editor for Linux. It doesn't "come
> >> with" RedHat but a simple Google search will take you to it.
> >
> > I don't disagree with you but it's very easy to end up with the Linux
> > equivalent of DLL hell. In the Linux case you end up with a machine
> > with a base install, some RPMs downloaded from various sites and
> > finally some source code installs.
> >
> > Install Samba from source and you then have to mentally ensure you
> > keep an eye out for security updates etc. And if you upgrade your
> > system it won't be picked up cleanly (with possibly messy results). If
> > you have a number of servers - all with different requirements this
> > rapidly becomes problematic. In such cases I can see that choosing
> > distributions which come with all the products you need at the base
> > level to be very beneficial.
>
>
> Then Install Samba from RPM!
>
> Ever hear of www.freshrpms.net, or www.romfind.net?
>
> As for security updates you can subscribe to mailing lists. When a
> security update comes out in source form, just patch your source and go
> from there. It ain't rocket science.
>

Actually I thought your original posting mentioned compilation from
source as an alternative to installing from RPM (hence my example) but
I now realise it didn't. Apologies.

Getting back to RPMs. Your solution can be manageable if you have just
one or two machines with the same software. However if you have thirty
different RedHat boxes all running with different packages for
different clients the solution doesn't scale.

> I don't see why some people make things more complicated than it needs to
> be.

Bingo. Well done. Choose a distribution that meets your requirements
and it doesn't become complicated. Everything is in one place. My
current preferred simple setup is RedHat 9, and apt-get/freshrpms.net. 

-- 
Ian J Cottee
Nagoya, Japan

Relevant Pages

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