[CentOS-devel] Is it possible to merge elrepo.org contribute to centos main repository?

Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
Wed Feb 26 23:25:34 UTC 2014


On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 5:05 PM, Alexander Arlt <centos at track5.de> wrote:
>>>
>> Much of the point of free software is the fact that once something has
>> been done once, any number of copies of it 'just work' for no extra
>> cost.   So, the missing piece here is just a reasonable way for
>> someone else to duplicate the setup.
>
> Again, there is the assumption that there is a reasonable way for
> duplicating this setup.

There is a way.  If you were to hand yum the right package revisions
in the right order with the right repos enabled for each, it would
build a matching system for you.  The low level bits are there.

> RHEL and CentOS have a very clear focus on what
> they want to achieve.

Which currently doesn't involve helping users avoid shooting
themselves in the foot.

>> No, that's really only relevant after something goes wrong.  The point
>> of it is the effort that goes into avoiding/fixing the things that go
>> wrong.  And the more people that run exactly the same code and report
>> their bugs, sometimes with fixes, the better that turns out.
>
> Not in my world. CentOS is accepted as a full blown RHEL-alternative by
> nearly everyone doing audits. You will be able to achieve SOX-compliance
> with almost any auditor I have met so far by using CentOS. Enterprise
> nowadays is far more than just having a hotline to call when things go
> wrong. And - at least in my opinion - CentOS is the only community
> driven Linux today fulfilling enterprise requirements without big time
> hassle.

Are there restrictions on content from EPEL?   Oracle Java?   Your own
applications?   Where do 3rd party additions become a problem in this
context?

>> Adding additional applications doesn't hurt the base.   It is just
>> better testing for it.
>
> It depends on the application. You will have the effort of backporting
> patches if you are not able to bring current versions of several
> libraries to the game. Or you will have to update core libraries.

Or use static linkage - or alternate locations like software
collections.  There are ways that don't break the base...

>>
>> I assume the 4 is a typo there.  RHEL 4's EOL was 2-29-2012,  But
>> that's all kind of irrelevant to what we should be preparing for after
>> a new install of CentOS 7 and what to expect from it.
>
> No, RHEL 4 has Extended Life Phase till 2015. And will probably be even
> longer supported - at least that's what we're all hoping for. And that
> is not irrelevant, because - basically - that's what enterprise is
> about. Getting long term support and that's maybe 10+ years.

Interesting - I just got the 2012 EOL date from a Red Hat google hit.
But I had some early problems with Centos4 and moved to 5 as soon as
it came out.   I think they mostly involved perl module packaging,
though, and might not have affected other uses.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com



More information about the CentOS-devel mailing list