[CentOS] CentOS and SL, together?

[Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

From: Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu>
> Referencing SL3 and CentOS 3 (as I haven't run SL4 as yet) there were some 
> scientific applications and some Java stuff, eclipse for one, 

You do understand the redistribution issues with Java, correct?
It's a Sun problem (a typical thorn for Red Hat in general), not a Red Hat one.

> part of cluster suite for another, included.
> Lessee,  
> https://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/30x/features/ is the reference.
> GFS, Eclipse, Cluster Suite, OpenAFS, ksh93, a set of 'tweak' RPMs (my 
> favorite being the serial console tweak RPM).

Red Hat is pushing to get GFS in the stock kernel.
They bought out Sistina for a reason, to keep it GPL.
These things don't happen overnight.  ;->
GFS was introduced as an add-on, and probably will until it
is in the stock kernel -- Red Hat is trying to avoid heavily
patching the kernel nowdays (for various reasons).

As far as OpenAFS, I assume you mean the server?
Or you don't like Red Hat's included client in the kernel?
As always, make a Bugzilla request if you want something.

> For SL4, the doc is at 
> https://www.scientificlinux.org/distributions/4x/features/ and includes fewer 
> addons.  OpenAFS is the biggest of these, I guess.

And I too have deployed OpenAFS.
The server is 100% userspace, so it shouldn't be too difficult
to get it included, at least in Fedora Core (possibly the next
RHEL5).

> Once the cluster suite and eclipse are available they probably will be rolled in.

Eclipse is now in Fedora Core 4.
One thing to always remember that Eclipse's licensing is outside the control
of Red Hat, and is IBM.
It is also released under a non-GPL compatible license by IBM, and is similar in
restriction to Sun/Mozilla licenses, so I'm sure Red Hat was hesitant to include
it before.

> The Fermi version of SL 3 had included a packaged JRE and was very attractive 
> for that, but later releases have not had that and rather have pointers to 
> download from sun.

It is illegal to redistribute the JRE for Linux without a license.
Again, see Sun for details.  ;->

> Pine also is in the SL dists.

Pico/Pine also changed licenses awhile back and is considered "non-free."
Nano replaced Pico, can't remember what replaced Pine.

Once again, I will remind people that an "enterprise/SLA" focused distro
will rarely be focused on features.  At the same time, it's clear that it
requires many "enterprise" software packages built upon an "enterprise"
distro -- which is not uncommon.  Red Hat can't ship an "all-in-one" distro
for enterprises -- and a SL solution is going to be on the other side of the
spectrum from, say, a financial industry focused Linux.

So Red Hat would rather ship a common base, supported by SLAs, and then
sell add-ons with SLAs for a more specific configuration.

If you want an industry-specific Linux, you're not going to find it from
a generic distribution vendor.  And you shouldn't wonder why they don't
throw in things -- especially not things like Java which are _illegal_ to
bundle freely.

-- Bryan

P.S.  As always, maintain your own APT/YUM repository internally, and mix
in any required RPMs.  I virtually _never_ install from CD/DVD, almost always
via NFS -- possibly with some post-install APT/YUM.



--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org