[TriLUG] Server: Debian or Mandrake?

[Chris Hedemark]

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On Tuesday, April 22, 2003, at 12:48 PM, Tarus Balog wrote:

> The distro I am most familiar with is Red Hat, and I really like it. 
> But I
> also run 7.3 on my servers because I want the stability. With the 
> changes
> going on at Red Hat, I am looking at Debian or Mandrake 9.1 for the 
> O/S on
> this server.

Mandrake is more like Red Hat.  If ease of transition is most important 
to you, that is a consideration.

I think that Debian's model lends itself well to long cycles between 
major upgrades, which is better for business.  I think that also it is 
somewhat easier to automate the package updating of numerous Debian 
machines but I'm sure that Mandrake users will take issue with that.  
I'm not a Mandrake user really so it's just a personal opinion based 
off of some peripheral Mandrake experience.

Mandrake is by far easier to install than Debian.  I don't know if 
Mandrake has kickstart or not, but if it does that makes installation a 
BREEZE.

> My needs:
>
> 1) Serve files (via Samba)

Both can do this.

> 2) Security

I prefer the minimalist approach that Debian takes, which makes it 
easier to stay on top of package upgrades.  Mandrake & Red Hat are what 
I call "kitchen sink distros" as they dump a ton of stuff on your 
system that you'll probably never need, and if you don't remove it 
you're going to have to stay on top of security upgrades for.

> 3) screen (haven't used it - seems cool)

Runs on both.

> 4) Ease of maintenance

Both have this, but with different implementations.  The Debian model 
is very mature and stable, and I have a preference for it over Mandrake 
which I consider to be a bit more bleeding edge & experimental.

I'm going to be going through a more serious evaluation of other Linux 
platforms shortly and Debian is on the short list of distros to check 
out.  Mandrake is not, largely because (1) of the kitchen sink approach 
and (2) bleeding edge/experimental bias.  Long term stability is more 
important to me, and I have a lot of outward facing servers so security 
is also very important.

- --

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