CentOS

Team,

I just read this negative article in Linux Magazine: http://www.linux-mag.com/id/8608/. The writer makes some good points in the article concerning the current state of the project, but I felt that it was a little harsh. Either way, I suggest that we move forward and do the best we can with what we have. I also suggest that we expand our presence on Facebook and twitter in an effort to attract a bigger community.

Regards,

John...

Interesting but, the response in the comments is also, IMHO, rather accurate.

Moved to the Social forum as it's not directly a support issue.

Personally, I don't see it as overly harsh, more an accurate reflection of where the project is at the moment.

The current lag times for updates makes it hard to recommend CentOS for use on exposed machines, and given the core CentOS market is web servers/web hosts/ISPs it's difficult to see how CentOS can maintain it's current position of market leader unless things improve.

[quote]
NedSlider wrote:
Moved to the Social forum as it's not directly a support issue.

Personally, I don't see it as overly harsh, more an accurate reflection of where the project is at the moment.

The current lag times for updates makes it hard to recommend CentOS for use on exposed machines, and given the core CentOS market is web servers/web hosts/ISPs it's difficult to see how CentOS can maintain it's current position of market leader unless things improve.[/quote]

After reading the article, it's disheartening to someone who just recently moved to CentOS. I will say, though, that since 5.6 released, there were updates fairly quickly, that's a good point, although 6.x is still delayed indefinately, I don't know if I need to go to 6.x in the near future, as long as 5.x is supported and gets updates in a reliably timely fashion.

One bug that does need to be fixed as quickly as possible though [url=https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=30939&forum=37]here[/url].

If it's not, it could be a major killer for CentOS.

[quote]
Corwyn wrote:
...
One bug that does need to be fixed as quickly as possible though [url=https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=30939&forum=37]here[/url].

If it's not, it could be a major killer for CentOS.[/quote]
That is not a CentOS bug. The fix will be out when it comes from upstream. Meanwhile use the alternatives provided in that thread.

[quote]
pschaff wrote:
[quote]
Corwyn wrote:
...
One bug that does need to be fixed as quickly as possible though [url=https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=30939&forum=37]here[/url].

If it's not, it could be a major killer for CentOS.[/quote]
That is not a CentOS bug. The fix will be out when it comes from upstream. Meanwhile use the alternatives provided in that thread.[/quote]

So CentOS get's it's updates from RH without any QA process and releases it to the community?

John...

[quote]
jt867 wrote:
...
So CentOS get's it's updates from RH without any QA process and releases it to the community?
[/quote]
CentOS gets updates from upstream. There is an extensive QA process for new point releases and more so for major releases. Updates within a release are typically not subjected to QA, other than testing by the developers. If they were then people would probably be complaining about the delay in security releases. CentOS strives to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with upstream so this security update was released with knowledge of the bug. More could probably have been done to provide warning, but there was the aforementioned thread.

P.S. Please trim your quotes and do not gratuitously quote entire posts to no purpose. It just adds noise to the channel.

I would not take that as a harsh, attacking statements but as a constructive criticism. Lets face the fact that CentOS Project is sucessfull in bringing the CentOS into the community. So successful that it is being used in production servers. But lets also face the fact that its not a perfect project. It has its short comings. The most reasonable reaction here is to solve the problems, not ignoring it. I have seen the process improving. For example, when 5.4 or 5.5 was out Karanbir asked for kickstart files which would aid the testing phase. The community responded and all was well. Then there is the most recent one that all packages are now being shipped all at the same time to prevent breakage. Updates were shipped and all of my servers are still running gracefully. Now the project faces a more serious problem. I think the phrase [i]fix the roof while the sun shines[/i] is applicable here. Though the rain aint over since the project still has 6, if not 6.1, and 4.9. I just hope that Karanbir or anybody would come up with a plan on solving the problem.

[quote]
jt867 wrote:
I felt that it was a little harsh.[/quote]

Not harsh enough. This project has some fairly totalitarian overlords that hide the meat and potatoes on how to cobble together a whitebox distro.

And its too bad, as many of the competing whitebox RHEL distros gave their lives to this project, Whitebox, Tao, etc, and now the overlords run it like a bunch Skeksis brooding over a dark crystal that is cracked and need of repair.

this article was very very soft on CentOS

like i stated before and i have no affiliations with any competing distro or product (although i'm a slackware user since the 90's) the problem with CentOS is "God Karambir", he sees millions to be made out of this project one day and has a very narrow vision.

If you want this project to prosper and go forward you have to open it up! ask for help, get more devel guys to help out and punch security updates out within minutes not weeks. Have a clear line of communication with your users, have beta testing and so forth but by keeping it close to your chest and griping your fist around it it will just leak around your fingers like sand.

I for one I'm over CentOS, in process of talking to my CTO and dumping it, SL, RHEL look good. I don't look at the cost of it as it's nothing in the grand schemes and would happy pay a few hundred a year for the CentOS project but in that case i want to know that my money makes some difference and security updates are up to date.

To me the silence from the head dev team was pathetic then in one day you get hit with 20 updates that need testing before going into prod...pffft, I'm over it.

Enterprise OS? wondered what you been smoking!