[CentOS] Choosing a CentOS version

Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
Mon Oct 3 18:10:16 UTC 2011


On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 12:21 PM, Bade Iriabho <ebade at mathbiol.org> wrote:
> This may be a noob question but there is something I have been trying to
> understand, there are currently three main versions of CentOS 4, 5, and 6.
> My main question is simply how do I know what version I should deploy? I
> have searched online and either I did not do a good job of searching or the
> information I get is inadequate.
>
> To better understand why I ask this question, here are some of the build up
> questions.
> - Is there an online resource that lists (compare/contrast) the different
> versions (i.e. 4, 5, and 6) and why you should pick a particular one?
> - Is a particular version the best for a web server, how do I know this?
> - Should or does it matter what version I deploy?
> - Can assume that once a version is decided upon, one should stick to the
> latest release. i.e. for version 5, go with 5.7 right now?
>
> If you can point me to an online resource, that would be awesome as well.

These 'Enterprise' versions have a very long update cycle during which
the included software is kept stable, generally by avoiding new
features and backporting bug and security fixes into the program
versions originally shipped.  Within the major release numbers you can
usually expect 'yum update' not to break anything that was previously
running (with rare exceptions, of course).   There are only a couple
of reasons that you would not choose the latest available.   One is
that you have existing programs that won't run on the newest release
(which is why there is overlap), and another is that you want to avoid
the bugs that are unavoidable with the big changes that come in the
X.0 releases.   But an installable 6.1 should be close and you can
already update to it with the CR repo.

The older releases still work, but using them means you are missing
out on years of development work and improvements in the software and
will have a much shorter update life going forward.


-- 
    Les Mikesell
      lesmikesell at gmail.com



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