[TriLUG] OS recommendations/Aging software issues

[William Sutton]

On Thu, 2 Jun 2005, Dave Sorenson wrote:

-- snip --

> 
> Take the "easier to ask forgiveness than permission" route. Set up a 
> "test" server and see if everything will work. If it doesn't work 
> easily, all you're out is a few hours for the OS install and you can 
> justify that by the "need" to investigate and test in preparation for 
> the real install. ;)

I agree with doing tests on new and old versions of Linux to see what 
works/breaks.  It (shoudln't) matter, but some dependencies may exist for 
older libraries that no longer function the same way.  By way of example, 
the LokiSoft Civilization:  Call to Power game for Linux worked fine with 
the version of glibc that shipped with Red Hat up through 7.2 or so.  By 
the time Red Hat 9 rolled around, glibc had changed in ways that made the 
game completely unusable.  Likewise, you may find dependency issues with 
your Symmantec software that make it only work on RH9 or similarly aged 
version of Linux.  You never know until you try :)

William