20031112: What to do regarding RedHat Linux support

>From: Gilbert Sebenste <address@hidden>
>Organization: NIU
>Keywords: 200311121835.hACIZuOb024019 Linux

Gilbert,

>Tom, (I'm also cc'ing this to Dave Bukowski at College of DuPage)
>
>Sigh.
>
>I really don't know what to type here.
>
>I am back from my 10 day trip trip...just in time for 50+ MPH winds that 
>are about to hit us. You know about those, don't you? :-)

Yes, we _do_ know about the winds here in Boulder.

>Next to me, sitting in a box, is a nice shiny Pentium 4. With Red Hat 
>Linux on it. And that is a new problem.
>
>I have now caught up on my emails and frankly, I'm struggling as to what 
>to do. RedHat Linux is going bye-bye. I can't afford RH Enterprise. And, I 
>love Linux.

I would suggest that you either move to the Fedora distribution --
which looks an awful lot alike RedHat 9 right at the moment -- or
switch to a different distribution.  We are still weighing options here
at the UPC; we have Fedora loaded on two different machines at the
moment.  I can report that the LDM works like a champ under Fedora (no
suprise), but I can't report on either McIDAS or GEMPAK.

>So I went to Mandrake's site last night. Looks great, but I fear they may 
>go into the direction of RedHat. Then what? Do I play a game of reformat 
>the hard drive every 6 months?

Good question.

>My loathe of SunOS and Solaris is almost legendary now. I want to stick 
>with Linux.

I am now a big fan of FreeBSD followed by Linux.  I like Solaris x86, but
its installation is a HUGE pain.

>COD has run Debian for a good long while with no major 
>problems. However, I had major problems installing it. I couldn't get it 
>to do so over the Internet. However, that's when Napster was in full 
>swing, and bandwidth here was...a joke.

Many folks are running Debian and liking it.

>So I stare at my box, wondering what to do. Mandrake seems cool. But Dave 
>Bukowski runs Debian at COD with no problems, but it seems to be difficult 
>to set up and manage (unless that has changed).

Fedora?

>I'm all ears. I also need to know what UNIDATA intends to do with Linux 
>support, now that RH has thrown it's red hat out of the ring.

We do not have an "official" policy at this time.  Given your experience
with RedHat Linux, I would recommend trying out Fedora.

>If I am going to another Linux flavor, I might as well do it out of the 
>box!

I agree.  We can not advise you about this just yet, sorry.

Tom