[CentOS] Getting ready for CentOS 5.4

[Rainer Duffner]

Am 31.03.2009 um 01:12 schrieb Ross Walker:

>
> I would love something like Nexenta, but with a CentOS userland.
>


What exactly are you missing from Solaris userland that does exist in  
Linux, BTW?
Maybe except for all the horrible cat some_arcane_value > /proc/foo  
or /sys/baz to coax the kernel into doing something.
But I'm not missing that.

And I'm not missing Nexenta. Last time I looked, the "free" version  
did almost nothing compared to the commercial version.
Which is no surprise, really, and brings us back to square one....


> Imagine an unencumbered kernel with the stability of CentOS userland
> tools.
>
> You get ZFS/ARC, dtrace, smf, fma, plus the Solaris IP stack which is
> quite robust, with all the command line tools you are use to.
>
> Think SELinux could be ported to the Solaris kernel?


Hm. Seems like this is happening, more or less:
http://www.press.redhat.com/2008/04/09/red-hat-welcomes-opensolaris-and-ubuntu-to-the-world-of-type-enforcement/

I'm sometimes amused how people want "this" with "that", though.

Don't you people sometimes think that Linux is the way it is exactly  
because of too many people thinking that way and actually getting what  
they wanted?
Linux is everything and the kitchen sink (in terms of features), but  
few are completely implemented or actually wrapped into an API/ 
userland tools. Everything is constantly in flux, most stuff get's  
thrown over every other year (except for the places that would really  
need it, seemingly) and hardly anybody documents (try to find a man- 
page for a hw-driver...)
Now, they're chasing ZFS with this butter-fs crap. Hello? How about  
allowing growing partitions without using LVM first?
Sure, btrfs will solve all the problems, really - but while it  
matures, it will introduce lot's of others that you only get to know  
about once you want to use it...

Don't get me wrong - some things in Linux actually work quite well and  
it's quick to get up- and running (once you run a cobbler server) -  
but I know its limits and I don't try to push it beyond those.
I use Solaris or FreeBSD when they fit the bill (which is also not  
always the case). But I don't think a system that does all and  
everything these three do individually would actually be better or a  
joy to use...

"Less is more"



Rainer