Re: Start with small steps (Re: [e-smith-devinfo] Rough development plan)]

Just to touch on Base Distro topic again... I want to ask is this really 
as premature as everyone is making it out to be? I believe its in no way 
premature... and it would be foolish to not start considering, 
discussing and deciding what distros.
Yes it will be a huge job to change to a new Distro and Yes there a many 
other things that need to be considered and worked on before we even 
venture down this path. But there needs to be a plan for the big 
picture, If we aren't careful we are going to end up 6 months down the 
track with a distro thats out of date and unsupported. The sooner this 
is discussed and sorted the better, then we can start working on 
something in parallel and reduce the downtime between changing.

On another note
I think the main things that really need to be considered when the OS is 
selected are:
(based on the the current problems and issues)

1) How often are the the new versions of the distro released.
2) How long are the old versions going to be supported for once a new 
one is released
3)If there are a constant release of patches for the distro is it the 
right choice, the last thing we want is to be racing around all our 
clients every couple of weeks because they have found yet another 
security hole.

Whatever distro we choose to go for the main focus now needs to be on 
security (reducing the amount of required updates by using a stable 
secure system right from the beginning)... all other functionality can 
be added to the system later providing the is the development is 
available in these areas.
This is the reason I suggested people take a look at BSD previously. 
OpenBSD has the claim of “Only one remote hole in the default install, 
in more than 7 years!â€... FreeBSD has a nice list of all their ported 
contribed Apps (9662) take a look you might be surprised 
http://www.freebsd.org/ports/index.html

Tivon Coles
Enternet Online


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