A call for recomendations and helpful some advice

[Bill Mullen]

On Tue, 2003-03-25 at 21:00, Cole Tuininga wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-03-25 at 18:56, Bill Mullen wrote:
> > I realize that you've already written off Mandrake as one of your
> > possible choices (though I can't really see why, as you can do just as
> > minimal an install in expert mode with Mandrake as with any other major
> > distro), but I thought I'd mention that the Mandrake tool "urpmi" does
> > just what you're looking for - updating unlimited machines without cost
> > or need to register with anyone - and is both easy to use and easy to
> > automate. It has all but eliminated dependency hell for most Mandrakers.
> 
> If I was talking strictly about desktop systems, it might be an option. 
> However, mostly what I do is servers.  A graphical based tool (unless
> urpmi has a text mode?) isn't terribly feasible.  

But urpmi /is/ a CLI tool - with a GUI frontend, "rpmdrake". :)

> I've never tried Mandrake as a server - how does it compare to RH or
> Debian?  I have to say that the biggest thing keeping me on Debian for
> servers (and some of my personal desktop systems) is apt.

I have had great success with Mandrake, especially 9.0, as a server in
several installations. My 8.1 server/spare-workstation box here at home,
a dual-PII/350 NEC, has been chugging along for the last 83 days with no
trouble at all (I *really* need to spring for an UPS <g>). MDK has all
of the usual daemon suspects available, of course - samba, squid, bind,
nfs, proftpd, etc.etc. - but one that ISTR seeing you mention that I'm
not sure about is Exim; the default MDK MTA is Postfix, and Sendmail is
also on the install CDs, but if Exim is available for it, it'd be online
in the contribs collection (never looked for it, I'm used to Postfix).

> As was mentioned, apt can run on Redhat though.  I may have to break
> down and give it a try.

"Apt-rpm" is also available for Mandrake, but urpmi is the default tool
for the installation and updating of RPMs. Unlike apt-get, it does not
launch a debconf-style configuration app for newly installed packages;
OTOH, like apt-get, it intelligently resolves dependency issues and
offers to get whatever additional RPMs are needed from whatever sources
- on the web and/or local, http and/or ftp and/or nfs - that it knows
about (or will automatically get them, with the correct runtime args).
An interactive update of all installed packages is as simple as running
"urpmi.update -a" (to get the latest lists of packages), then "urpmi
--auto-select" (to locate and install what's needed). Unlike up2date, no
system info is ever transmitted to (or needed on) anyone else's server.

I update remote systems this way (urpmi, over ssh) routinely. I first
delete the install CDs as sources, then set up online sources for the
main distro, the contribs, and a great collection called PLF (Penguin
Liberation Front), which has a slew of packages whose licensing issues
make them unable to be included in the distro itself - libdvdcss, pine,
lame, win32 codecs and other plugins for xine/mplayer/avifile/ogle, all
kinds of nifty stuff ... not that one needs most of them for a server
box, but when you do, it's nice to know that they are out there ... ;)

-- 
Bill Mullen   moon at lunarhub.com   MA, USA   RLU #270075   MDK 8.1 & 9.0
"Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and
car keys to teenage boys."  - P.J. O'Rourke