Re: OpenSource distro (was : [ossig] MySQL - A quick question.)

["Mukhsein Johari" <mukhsein@email.com>]

> Does FreeBSD have an 'up2date' equivalent?
> It's nothing against any platform, I know all
> *BSD and *nix can run Apache, Sendmail, PHP.
> 
> My requirement is, what can we deploy with lowest
> cost, maximum confidence that it is secure?  Lowest
> staff cost to keep it up to date, that is.  And
> no need to reinstall the OS during estimated server
> lifetime of say 5 years.  So, RH 7,8
> probably not good if they will be retired during
> that time.
> 

Hi Imran, I would really suggest you give freebsd a try, like Yusmar suggested. While I don't know what up2date is like, it is very easy to upgrade freebsd. I think Yusmar still has machines 'installed' with 3.x but kept up-to-date to the current STABLE (if not CURRENT!)

In fact, lowest cost and easy to maintain were the primary reason I chose freebsd for our two servers in the lab here in UM. 

Replacing:
NTserver - using SAMBA for file and print services
RH8 - for web and email

The other thing is, if you're doing standard server stuff with apache, sendmail, this is ideal. It's dead easy to update and docs are in the handbook and manpages are really good. If you don't need anything esoteric and fast-developing (like, say, twisted) it is ideal. So, for a site that's permanently connected to the internet I find that nothing beats freebsd. It really truly rocks.

In fact since our servers went bsd, they have been very erm...inconspicuous in the sense that, neither I nor my junior staff have had to do _anything_ to them for some months (except updated sendmail recently)

I may be a little biased but imho, red hat sucks in the low-hassle maintenance issue. Or maybe I just don't grok rpm...

<aside>
In fact, I sometimes visit (virtually and physically) the machines just to make sure they _are_ up since there has not been _any_ cries for help or problem reports from the users.
</aside>

Regards,
Mukhsein Johari

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