[CentOS] What happened to 6.1

[Ljubomir Ljubojevic]

Vreme: 11/01/2011 11:02 AM, Peter Peltonen piše:
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Mathieu Baudier<mbaudier at argeo.org>  wrote:
>>> If absolute 100% binary compatibility is not required, but admin-level compatibility and source-level compatibility with upstream EL is, Scientific Linux is covering that niche, and has their 6.1 out.
>>
>> In which concrete use cases is 100% binary compatibility important?
>
> I am no expert in compiling RPMs, but just recently I experienced the
> following:
>
> After installing a previous version of 3rd party SOGo RPM and
> reporting to the developers that the service wouldn't start after
> installation, I was informed that the RPM had been compiled on
> Scientific Linux 6.1 and because of binary incompatibility the RPM did
> not work under RHEL/CentOS. They recompiled on CentOS and the updated
> RPM installed/worked fine on my system.
>
> So if CentOS wouldn't be 100% compatible with RHEL, I guess we would
> start seeing more cases where programs compiled on RHEL might not run
> on CentOS. If you use just the base RPMs provided by the distro, this
> is no problem. But if you rely on some commercial / 3rd party RPMs,
> you might start facing problems.
>
> At least this is how I understood it, please correct me if I've got it wrong :)

The whole point in creating binary compatible clone distro, in this case 
CentOS is so you can use paid RHEL and CentOS in same maintenance 
environment, or at first use CentOS and easily switch to RHEl if you 
start needing paid support (like when your company starts making real 
money, admin stops being available all the time, etc...).

In that case, you can Install CentOS and some paid (or OSS) application 
and set everything up. System will receive updates for next 7 years 
before EOL. If you expand your business in next 2-3 years, and your 
online business becomes critical, you can buy support from Red Hat and 
easily switch to RHEL (you would change several packages and system 
would slowly become full RHEL). If packets are not binary compatible, 
then your application could stop working in expected manner.

Another use case is when you buy RHEL certified Application. Since 
CentOS is (still) binary compatible, many Software developers will 
accept CentOS as RHEL compatible system and provide you same support as 
to RHEL customer. If you would install on some other systems, they could 
deny you full support since your system is not certified for their 
Application.

-- 

Ljubomir Ljubojevic
(Love is in the Air)
PL Computers
Serbia, Europe

Google is the Mother, Google is the Father, and traceroute is your
trusty Spiderman...
StarOS, Mikrotik and CentOS/RHEL/Linux consultant