I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically - but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
At Tue, 19 May 2009 16:11:35 +0100 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Rather than do auto updates (sometimes there are conflicts or other issues needing *intellegent* intervention -- the recent update from CentOS 5.2 to 5.3 required that glibc be updated before the rest of the updates for example), maybe you should schedule a regular visit to this fellow. Not only will this make sure the machine is properly updated it also gives you a chance to check for any problems that will have cropped up.
Anne Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
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CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On
Behalf
Of Robert Heller Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:20 PM To: CentOS mailing list Cc: CentOS mailing list Subject: Re: [CentOS] Auto-installing security updates?
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need
to
keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Go for it! Did the same thing for my mother a few years ago. She had WinXP running in Workgroup mode. Somehow she'd managed to aquire a rootkit on her computer. After a few hours trying to get rid of it, I gave up, took her computer home to my place and installed Fedora Core 5. She's now at CentOS 5.3 and happily surfing along. She's most happy with Evolution, it works very well with for her.
Rather than do auto updates (sometimes there are conflicts or other issues needing *intellegent* intervention -- the recent update from CentOS 5.2 to 5.3 required that glibc be updated before the rest of the updates for example), maybe you should schedule a regular visit to this fellow.
I second that.
That's how I solved updates for the beloved mother, by enabling yum-updatesd. Yum-cron and yum-updateobboot are both disabled, but may be useful for simple systems. Minor version updates I do manually for her, and since I visit her every once in a while I also check up her computer. For the last three or four years CentOS has been doing very well for her.
On Tue, 19 May 2009 16:11:35 +0100 Anne Wilson wrote:
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
yum-updatesd
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On
Behalf
Of Frank Cox Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:22 PM To: CentOS mailing list Cc: Anne Wilson Subject: Re: [CentOS] Auto-installing security updates?
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need
to
keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
yum-updatesd
Isn't that only the notifier thing in the panel?
Frank Cox wrote:
On Tue, 19 May 2009 16:11:35 +0100 Anne Wilson wrote:
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
yum-updatesd
Which - after perfectly working in 5.2 - is broken again. I really liked it.
Ralph
On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 16:11 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
--- That's just the thing you don't have to do anything. Yumupdatesd will handle that for you. Or stop the service and put on a cronjob. Just that easy.
JohnStanley
On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 11:22 AM, JohnS jses27@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 16:11 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
That's just the thing you don't have to do anything. Yumupdatesd will handle that for you. Or stop the service and put on a cronjob. Just that easy.
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
However, on very rare occasions, he might get bitten in the rear. As someone else suggested, possibly you could drop in and update his system, once a month or so, in case something goes awry? The risk to that is that he would not have the latest and greatest versions, after they are updated for security/stability. The plus side is that he might get very confused if something goes awry with an automatic update. I would think that if he uses a Desktop, CentOS will be very good for him. Consider adding the Multimedia stuff for him? From what I've read on the list, CentOS on a Laptop can be problematic, but if he's using a Desktop, should be good to go. GL
On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 14:37 -0500, Lanny Marcus wrote:
On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 11:22 AM, JohnS jses27@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 16:11 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
That's just the thing you don't have to do anything. Yumupdatesd will handle that for you. Or stop the service and put on a cronjob. Just that easy.
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
--- I do not disagree with that. But we have a problem you see! That problem is an ordinary user has of no use in reading that manual. I in fact have tried that with my father in law. All he was interested in was email web browsing and saving his pictures. Especially if he/she is new to Linux or computers.
JohnStanley
On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 4:54 PM, JohnS jses27@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 14:37 -0500, Lanny Marcus wrote:
On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 11:22 AM, JohnS jses27@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 16:11 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
That's just the thing you don't have to do anything. Yumupdatesd will handle that for you. Or stop the service and put on a cronjob. Just that easy.
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
I do not disagree with that. But we have a problem you see! That problem is an ordinary user has of no use in reading that manual. I in fact have tried that with my father in law. All he was interested in was email web browsing and saving his pictures. Especially if he/she is new to Linux or computers.
Possibly the best way is for the updates to be setup to run automatically and in the rare (but possible) event that something goes awry, then the user call for on site help, to straighten it out. The majority of the updates work properly, without any intervention, but once in awhile....
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On Behalf Of Lanny Marcus Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 12:28 AM To: CentOS mailing list Subject: Re: [CentOS] Auto-installing security updates?
Possibly the best way is for the updates to be setup to run automatically and in the rare (but possible) event that something goes awry, then the user call for on site help, to straighten it out. The majority of the updates work properly, without any intervention, but once in awhile....
Or uif the router supports that function, set up a port forwarding rule to allow ssh connections from a particular ip (yours), which you can use to remote update the machine. That's what I used for my mother for years, never had any problems, that is until her D-link router gave up, and I bought her a new low budget router that turned out not to support port forwarding...
Of course, should stuff go totally pear-shaped while updating remotely, you're pretty much SOL anyway, and a personal visit in person is needed. It works if you're living in the same town or out-of-town, but close-ish.
Lanny Marcus wrote:
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
a) That manual was written at the time of 5.0 - yum-updatesd was broken then. b) It is broken again :/ c) "yum update yum" and then "yum update" the rest broke things for some people when going from 5.2 to 5.3.
Ralph
On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 5:46 AM, Ralph Angenendt ra+centos@br-online.de wrote:
Lanny Marcus wrote:
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
a) That manual was written at the time of 5.0 - yum-updatesd was broken then. b) It is broken again :/ c) "yum update yum" and then "yum update" the rest broke things for some people when going from 5.2 to 5.3.
Ralph: I will stick to "yum update", after what you wrote above. Lanny
On May 20, 2009, at 6:46 AM, Ralph Angenendt ra+centos@br-online.de wrote:
Lanny Marcus wrote:
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
a) That manual was written at the time of 5.0 - yum-updatesd was broken then. b) It is broken again :/ c) "yum update yum" and then "yum update" the rest broke things for some people when going from 5.2 to 5.3.
Ralph,
I wonder if yum-updatesd might cache repo data separate from yum cache, in which case some older incompatible cached data from the previous version may still be around causing yum-updatesd to bork.
If so I think that cache will need to be manually deleted.
I'll check my desktop system when I get to work to see if my theory is correct.
-Ross
On Wed, 2009-05-20 at 09:30 -0400, Ross Walker wrote:
On May 20, 2009, at 6:46 AM, Ralph Angenendt ra+centos@br-online.de wrote:
Lanny Marcus wrote:
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
a) That manual was written at the time of 5.0 - yum-updatesd was broken then. b) It is broken again :/ c) "yum update yum" and then "yum update" the rest broke things for some people when going from 5.2 to 5.3.
Ralph,
I wonder if yum-updatesd might cache repo data separate from yum cache, in which case some older incompatible cached data from the previous version may still be around causing yum-updatesd to bork.
If so I think that cache will need to be manually deleted.
I'll check my desktop system when I get to work to see if my theory is correct.
-Ross
--- The recent problem with having to yum clean all I have gone to the extent of testing on a client machine. What i have done is run a cron job for yum clean metadata whith a if then yum update. Evidently this is not happing to everyone.
JohnStanley
On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 12:13 PM, JohnS jses27@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, 2009-05-20 at 09:30 -0400, Ross Walker wrote:
I wonder if yum-updatesd might cache repo data separate from yum cache, in which case some older incompatible cached data from the previous version may still be around causing yum-updatesd to bork.
If so I think that cache will need to be manually deleted.
I'll check my desktop system when I get to work to see if my theory is correct.
The recent problem with having to yum clean all I have gone to the extent of testing on a client machine. What i have done is run a cron job for yum clean metadata whith a if then yum update. Evidently this is not happing to everyone.
You don't need a cron job for this issue, it's a one-time event as the repo metadata for the new yum isn't compatible with the old yum and if there was cached old metadata left over after the upgrade, that wasn't marked stale, then it would cause yum grief. Clearing out the metadata was the simple fix and only needed to happen once.
I forgot to check to see if yum-updatesd kept a separate metadata cache too that might need manual clearing out.
-Ross
On Thu, 2009-05-21 at 21:06 -0400, Ross Walker wrote:
On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 12:13 PM, JohnS jses27@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, 2009-05-20 at 09:30 -0400, Ross Walker wrote:
I wonder if yum-updatesd might cache repo data separate from yum cache, in which case some older incompatible cached data from the previous version may still be around causing yum-updatesd to bork.
If so I think that cache will need to be manually deleted.
I'll check my desktop system when I get to work to see if my theory is correct.
The recent problem with having to yum clean all I have gone to the extent of testing on a client machine. What i have done is run a cron job for yum clean metadata whith a if then yum update. Evidently this is not happing to everyone.
You don't need a cron job for this issue, it's a one-time event as the repo metadata for the new yum isn't compatible with the old yum and if there was cached old metadata left over after the upgrade, that wasn't marked stale, then it would cause yum grief. Clearing out the metadata was the simple fix and only needed to happen once.
I forgot to check to see if yum-updatesd kept a separate metadata cache too that might need manual clearing out.
-Ross
---
from: /usr/sbin/yum-updatesd def invalidate_cache(*args): global updateInfoDone, updateInfo, helperProcess if helperProcess is not None: return updateInfo = [] updateInfoDone = False def setup_watcher(): """Sets up gamin-based file watches on things we care about and makes it so they get checked every 15 seconds.""" # add some watches on directories. mon = gamin.WatchMonitor() mon.watch_directory("/var/lib/rpm", invalidate_cache) mon.watch_directory("/var/cache/yum", invalidate_cache) map(lambda x: os.path.isdir("/var/cache/yum/%s" %(x,)) and mon.watch_directory("/var/cache/yum/%s" %(x,), invalidate_cache), os.listdir("/var/cache/yum")) mon.handle_events() fd = mon.get_fd() gobject.io_add_watch(fd, gobject.IO_IN|gobject.IO_PRI, lambda x, y: mon.handle_events()) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Turns out that gamin is the one doing this metadata upkeep. Maybe Gamin is not working right on some installs?
Ross, the reason I done the cron job way was because I have had these problems before. From the code above it uses the same cache.
JohnStanley
On Wednesday 20 May 2009, Ralph Angenendt wrote:
Lanny Marcus wrote:
The NSA manual suggests disabling yum-updatesd and doing it with a cron job. update yum and then update.
a) That manual was written at the time of 5.0 - yum-updatesd was broken then. b) It is broken again :/ c) "yum update yum" and then "yum update" the rest broke things for some people when going from 5.2 to 5.3.
One idea could be to let it auto-update if the list of packages is "short" (that is not a 5.x -> 5.y). It's a bit of a hack and by no means guarantees that all will be well.
It could be done roughly like this I suppose: yum list updates | wc -l if above > limit log/tell "big update detected, please update manually" else log/tell "small update detected, applying automatically..." yum -y update
/Peter
Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very
insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
Wasn't there some special process you had to go through when going from 5.2 to 5.3? Something along the lines of having to manually update one(or more) packages before upgrading the rest of the system? I see that sort of issue as being very problematic for anything that auto installs updates.
http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.3#head-198f803bc13b52348...
I think a better solution would be an Ubuntu LTS installation, it's more geared for that type of person, and provides pretty seamless upgrades for minor and major versions in my experience.
Debian has a nice system in that I can "fix" the configuration file for apt-get to force it to the current release of the product(the default is to point to whatever is the current "stable" release), which will make sure all updates applied to the system are 100% compatible. If/when I decide to go to a newer version I can take the time to read the release notes and change the configuration to point to the next major version of the distro, otherwise you can fall into a similar trap, having a system blindly try to apply updates that may be out of order for a major version change.
Not everyone keeps up to date on the day a particular release comes out.
Ubuntu solves that by placing an easy to use button on the update manager to update to the next version of the distro or you can keep getting packages from the existing version, of course it's only maintained for so long. My sister's laptop was so out of date (and wasn't on a LTS version at the time), I had to jump through a few hoops to get it updated as the intermediate versions were no longer on the main mirror sites. I think her laptop was 3 releases behind at the time.
Major version changes on a RHEL-system are even more complicated, even Red hat advises doing a clean install.
http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Installatio...
SuSE used to be pretty good at upgrading as well though it's been a few years since I used it.
RHEL/CentOS are great for servers, and perhaps managed workstations (thinking of replacements for things like Sun/SGI/HP-UX workstations, and perhaps corporate desktops), I don't see it as a good candidate for many other things, but that's why there are multiple distributions, no distro is good at everything.
nate
on 5-19-2009 8:11 AM Anne Wilson spake the following:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
Maybe you could arrange to do some remote access every 3 or 4 months or so and just update it for him. You could also show him how to do it during this time, and it might give him some confidence and a better sense of independence which he will probably very much appreciate.
Hi Anne,
[...] he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. [...]
I'd be glad of any advice.
Like a previous poster, I'd also suggest, that you use an other distibution in this case. Ubuntu might be a good choice or maybe SuSE. Both are probably better suited for non-commandline techies :-).
Both distributions offer easy-to-use update tools.
I'd also suggest not to use Fedora or OpenSuse. They have both very fast release cycles, forcing you to updating very often.
On the other hand, showstoppers can always happen and in this case probably nothing will save you a personal appearance :-)
Cheers
frank
Frank Thommen wrote:
Hi Anne,
[...] he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. [...]
I'd be glad of any advice.
Like a previous poster, I'd also suggest, that you use an other distibution in this case. Ubuntu might be a good choice or maybe SuSE. Both are probably better suited for non-commandline techies :-).
That is utter bullshit. The neat thing about CentOS as a Desktop is that the system (mostly) stays the same over 7 years.
Both distributions offer easy-to-use update tools.
Oh, CentOS doesn't?
I'd also suggest not to use Fedora or OpenSuse. They have both very fast release cycles, forcing you to updating very often.
Ermm. You advise to use SuSE, but then suggest to not use it? Or were you talking about the Enterprise version?
Ralph
[...]
Like a previous poster, I'd also suggest, that you use an other distibution in this case. Ubuntu might be a good choice or maybe SuSE. Both are probably better suited for non-commandline techies :-).
That is utter bullshit. The neat thing about CentOS as a Desktop is that the system (mostly) stays the same over 7 years.
I was referring to the ease of use regarding updating etc. Not the desktop itself.
Both distributions offer easy-to-use update tools.
Oh, CentOS doesn't?
Not in such an integrated way as e.g. SuSE (yast). Or maybe I just don't know them?
I'd also suggest not to use Fedora or OpenSuse. They have both very fast release cycles, forcing you to updating very often.
Ermm. You advise to use SuSE, but then suggest to not use it? Or were you talking about the Enterprise version?
exactly.
frank
Frank Thommen wrote:
[...]
Like a previous poster, I'd also suggest, that you use an other distibution in this case. Ubuntu might be a good choice or maybe SuSE. Both are probably better suited for non-commandline techies :-).
That is utter bullshit. The neat thing about CentOS as a Desktop is that the system (mostly) stays the same over 7 years.
I was referring to the ease of use regarding updating etc. Not the desktop itself.
Ummm. yum? pirut? puplet? yum-updatesd (when it works)?
Both distributions offer easy-to-use update tools.
Oh, CentOS doesn't?
Not in such an integrated way as e.g. SuSE (yast). Or maybe I just don't know them?
yum? pirut? puplet? yum-updatesd? yumex?
I'd also suggest not to use Fedora or OpenSuse. They have both very fast release cycles, forcing you to updating very often.
Ermm. You advise to use SuSE, but then suggest to not use it? Or were you talking about the Enterprise version?
exactly.
Two years less support than CentOS for several thousand times the price :)
Ralph
On Tuesday 19 May 2009 16:11:35 Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically - but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
As much as I like CentOS, I tend to agree with the other posts. I don't think it is the right distro for non techies. I set up my in-laws with Linux Mint (running KDE, of course) and they could even handle installing the codecs and other non OSS stuff. Mint is a nice distro based on Ubuntu. John
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On
Behalf
Of John Kennedy Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 12:34 AM To: centos@centos.org Cc: Anne Wilson Subject: Re: [CentOS] Auto-installing security updates?
As much as I like CentOS, I tend to agree with the other posts. I don't
think
it is the right distro for non techies. I set up my in-laws with Linux Mint (running KDE, of course) and they could even handle installing the codecs and other non OSS stuff. Mint is a nice distro based on Ubuntu.
Nonsense! Just use the Redmond theme with gnome, and the user'll be non the wiser. It's much less scarier that way, from the end-user's perspective.
John Kennedy пишет:
On Tuesday 19 May 2009 16:11:35 Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically - but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Anne
As much as I like CentOS, I tend to agree with the other posts. I don't think it is the right distro for non techies. I set up my in-laws with Linux Mint (running KDE, of course) and they could even handle installing the codecs and other non OSS stuff. Mint is a nice distro based on Ubuntu. John
I second that. Mint is my choice of a linux desktop distro. As much as I like CentOS, I tend to use it on servers, and, only rarely, on manageable workstations.
But if it's easier for you to maintain just one-flavor distro, stick with CentOS, either way you will be a winner :-)
Alexx
John Kennedy wrote:
As much as I like CentOS, I tend to agree with the other posts. I don't think it is the right distro for non techies.
Why?
I set up my in-laws with Linux Mint (running KDE, of course) and they could even handle installing the codecs and other non OSS stuff. Mint is a nice distro based on Ubuntu.
And force them to update the complete Distribution every other year?
Ralph
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
but if you have a server, probably best choice is centos.
2009/5/20 Ralph Angenendt <ra+centos@br-online.de ra%2Bcentos@br-online.de
John Kennedy wrote:
As much as I like CentOS, I tend to agree with the other posts. I don't
think
it is the right distro for non techies.
Why?
I set up my in-laws with Linux Mint (running KDE, of course) and they
could
even handle installing the codecs and other non OSS stuff. Mint is a nice distro based on Ubuntu.
And force them to update the complete Distribution every other year?
Ralph
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Equinox86 wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
I still call this bullshit. CentOS is perfect for a Desktop which is used for Mail, Web and writing Office documents. Much better than all the distributions which you have to completely update every year or so.
Ralph
Ralph Angenendt wrote:
Equinox86 wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
I still call this bullshit. CentOS is perfect for a Desktop which is used for Mail, Web and writing Office documents. Much better than all the distributions which you have to completely update every year or so.
Ralph
+100 :-D
Exactly - install, set and forget for the life of the hardware (well, 7 years). Nothing worse than having the distro force you into a perpetual upgrade cycle. Then if you *want* to upgrade to the latest version (eg, 4 to 5, or 5 to 6 when released), you can, and more importantly, you can do it when *you* want, not when the distro withdraws support.
CentOS is a great desktop distro :)
While I am very happy with CentOS on my servers and my office workstation, I am using Ubuntu on my home laptop... The main point being: with Ubuntu, everything (wireless, graphic card, etc...) just worked straight away. All the other distros I tried failed on one or more aspects. And debian package management is quite good too. And if you want long term support, you can install the LTS versions...
JD
On 05/20/2009 03:55 PM, John Doe wrote:
While I am very happy with CentOS on my servers and my office workstation, I am using Ubuntu on my home laptop... The main point being: with Ubuntu, everything (wireless, graphic card, etc...) just worked straight away. All the other distros I tried failed on one or more aspects.
There are very few things on CentOS that really need manual tweaking and setting up - and once they are done, it just works. And keeps working for many years.
And debian package management is quite good too.
Debian package management used to be good in the late 1990's. Unfortunately for debian, the world has moved on. If you still think that apt is the best there is on offer today, you really need to start looking at the options. You'll be well surprised by whats on offer.
And if you want long term support, you can install the LTS versions...
yes, you can install LTS, and have it break every few months. LTS from Ubuntu is a sorry joke at their attempt to break into the business markets. Somethings that, even by their own admission, been mostly a failure.
- KB
On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 6:30 AM, Ralph Angenendt ra+centos@br-online.de wrote:
Equinox86 wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
I still call this bullshit. CentOS is perfect for a Desktop which is used for Mail, Web and writing Office documents. Much better than all the distributions which you have to completely update every year or so.
And some of the major releases of Fedora Core did not work for us. Varying experiences with FC, ranging from excellent, to we switched to CentOS and never looked back. And it may be less than one year, for a major update of Fedora Core or Ubuntu. If someone wants the latest and greatest Applications on their Desktop, CentOS will not provide that, but if they want a long life for the OS, security, stability and outstanding support, with a little time to install the Multimedia stuff, etc., CentOS is very good on the Desktop. I wonder which distro they use in U.S. Government installations. RHEL, CentOS or something else...
Ralph Angenendt wrote:
Equinox86 wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
I still call this bullshit. CentOS is perfect for a Desktop which is used for Mail, Web and writing Office documents. Much better than all the distributions which you have to completely update every year or so.
Ralph
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
I have installed CentOS 5.2 on two different laptops (Sony Vaio and a Dell D610), one for my wife and another for my daughter after both machines got infected with XP junk - both installed without a hitch, found the wireless etc. I then upgraded to 5.3 with an initial "yum update glib*" and then just "yum update". I install OpenOffice V3 via their rpm (normally remove CentOS version manually as V3 reads the latest windoze versions of word and excel that people insist on sending me) I also use the CentOSplus kernel for reasons I cannot remember - something to do with video / DVD / multimedia Then add things like flash and adobe reader, Xine, VLC media player so that they can do the usual internet download and watch clips etc. I think CentOS works just fine for workstations AND laptops - The initial setup is more laborious than some other distros due to needing to add rpmforge (and possibly EPEL) and needing to load the required bits by hand -but once done - enjoy all the things we love about CentOS! YMMV but I'm a committed user with 9 CentOS machines and growing. I do upgrades remotely via ssh sometimes, but as I normally see these machines regularly tend to do it when in front of the machine. Kind regards Rob
pfff only for office, if you wound a multimedia sistem with the reason mentioned in the mail before this reply centos is not for desktop, i preferred fedora 10, fedora have only 1 lack, have the software too much updated for my taste, but this is minor problem
2009/5/20 Ralph Angenendt <ra+centos@br-online.de ra%2Bcentos@br-online.de
Equinox86 wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much
time
and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend
to
recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop
friendly,
similar to swiss knife.
I still call this bullshit. CentOS is perfect for a Desktop which is used for Mail, Web and writing Office documents. Much better than all the distributions which you have to completely update every year or so.
Ralph
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 6:20 AM, Equinox86 equinox86@gmail.com wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
but if you have a server, probably best choice is centos.
Slackware on the Desktop? We have been using CentOS on our Desktops for several years. It is more complicated than Ubuntu (which I've never used, but is probably ready to go out of the box, with Multimedia running, but with a short life) or Fedora (which I have used, with excellent to bad results, depending on the release), because the Multimedia stuff needs to be added, etc. But the stability, security and long life make CentOS a winner, if it will run on the HW the person has. Probably not the best distro for Laptops, but many people on this list are using CentOS on their laptops.
At Wed, 20 May 2009 08:14:05 -0500 CentOS mailing list centos@centos.org wrote:
On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 6:20 AM, Equinox86 equinox86@gmail.com wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
but if you have a server, probably best choice is centos.
Slackware on the Desktop? We have been using CentOS on our Desktops for several years. It is more complicated than Ubuntu (which I've never used, but is probably ready to go out of the box, with Multimedia running, but with a short life) or Fedora (which I have used, with excellent to bad results, depending on the release), because the Multimedia stuff needs to be added, etc. But the stability, security and long life make CentOS a winner, if it will run on the HW the person has. Probably not the best distro for Laptops, but many people on this list are using CentOS on their laptops.
I'm running CentOS 4.8 on a Thinkpad X31. Works just fine. I am using the Suspend2 kernel from FC4 (2.6.17-1.2142_1.rhfc4.cubbi_swsusp2). Everything works just fine including playing music videos w/mplayer (1.0-0.40.rc1try2.el4.rf). (Just finished this cool Russian video: Dead Stars by Slot, now playing 99Luftballons by Nena.) Yes, it is an older laptop (I would not really want a new one anyway).
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
on 5-20-2009 6:14 AM Lanny Marcus spake the following:
On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 6:20 AM, Equinox86 equinox86-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
but if you have a server, probably best choice is centos.
Slackware on the Desktop? We have been using CentOS on our Desktops for several years. It is more complicated than Ubuntu (which I've never used, but is probably ready to go out of the box, with Multimedia running, but with a short life) or Fedora (which I have used, with excellent to bad results, depending on the release), because the Multimedia stuff needs to be added, etc. But the stability, security and long life make CentOS a winner, if it will run on the HW the person has. Probably not the best distro for Laptops, but many people on this list are using CentOS on their laptops.
It depends on the laptop. Consumer laptops are like the consumer distros. They use the latest hardware and have driver problems. Enterprise laptops are usually designed like servers. Non-cutting edge hardware built for long life and ruggedness instead of appealing to every new gadget that comes out. You have to decide what you want before you buy.
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On
Behalf
Of Lanny Marcus Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:14 PM To: CentOS mailing list Subject: Re: [CentOS] Auto-installing security updates?
Probably not the best distro for Laptops, but many people on this list are using CentOS on their laptops.
So what's considered to be the "best" choice for laptops? I understand mileage may vary and so on, but I think there might maybe be a general consensus at least?
Unfortunately I haven't had too good an experience with CentOS out-of the-box-installs with respect to wifi-NICs on laptops, but that's also the only thing I've been having problems with OTOH.
On Wed, 2009-05-20 at 13:20 +0200, Equinox86 wrote:
yes centos is not for desktop it's guaranteee, if you don't have much time and want a distro updated at last release, if you have much time to spend to recompile dependences i advice use slackware, is fast and desktop friendly, similar to swiss knife.
I bet it can't CUT HOT Butter Either!
but if you have a server, probably best choice is centos.
2009/5/20 Ralph Angenendt ra+centos@br-online.de John Kennedy wrote: > As much as I like CentOS, I tend to agree with the other posts. I don't think > it is the right distro for non techies.
Why? > I set up my in-laws with Linux Mint (running KDE, of course) and they could > even handle installing the codecs and other non OSS stuff. Mint is a nice > distro based on Ubuntu. And force them to update the complete Distribution every other year? Ralph _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 04:11:35PM +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
I've been asked to think about setting up an installation for a recently- widowed man. His needs are small - mail, Internet, on-line banking, basically
- but his wife dealt with all of it on her laptop and he feels very insecure.
It seems to me that CentOS would be perfect for him except for the need to keep it securely patched. I'm wondering if it's possible to auto-install security updates - for that matter, with so small a set of applications perhaps auto-installing every update would be good enough.
Maybe this could be done with a script run under cron.daily, so that anacron picks it up?
I'd be glad of any advice.
Use debian stable (currently 'lenny'). The philosophy behind stable releases of debian is release updates for packages only if you have security bugs. That way when you run 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade' you download and install only those already _installed_ packages which got security bugs.
Regards Przemyslaw Bak (przemol) -- http://przemol.blogspot.com/
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przemolicc@poczta.fm wrote:
Use debian stable (currently 'lenny'). The philosophy behind stable releases of debian is release updates for packages only if you have security bugs. That way when you run 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade' you download and install only those already _installed_ packages which got security bugs.
Sounds like CentOS, only without a guaranteed timeframe of "stableness".
Ralph
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