[CentOS] Sparc?

Thu Oct 15 18:15:03 UTC 2009
Tim Nelson <tnelson at rockbochs.com>

----- "ML" <mailinglists at MailNewsRSS.com> wrote:
> HI All,
> 
> I have acquired a Sun Fire VL 240. I know there is not a SPARC version
>  
> of CentOS.
> 
> Can anyone recommend a good OS for a machine that will do apache,  
> postfix, mysql, etc.
> 
> I know this is sort of a loaded question, but I don't have a lot of  
> knowledge on distros that are stable on Sparc.
> 
> -Jason


I've been an avid Sun/SPARC user/abuser/collector for some time now. For my boxes in production, I typically run FreeBSD at it seems to be the closest to "Linux world" to keep the learning curve shorter since my roots lie there. It is rock solid and performs well, even on older hardware like my Enterprise 420r. Debian works also although I don't have enough experience with it on SPARC to truly comment.

If you're looking for pure usability, *BSD or Debian may be your best bet. If you want top notch performance, you're probably better off with (Open)Solaris. And of course, it all depends on your comfort level.

There was Aurora Linux at one time for a Redhat based system running on SPARC. The site is still available although it appears to be largely dead:  http://auroralinux.org/ .

If you have any other SPARC related issues/questions, you are more than welcome to mail me off-list.

Tim Nelson
Systems/Network Support
Rockbochs Inc.
(218)727-4332 x105