Gentoo On Server Considered Harmful

Siker writes in to point out his blog post — Why Gentoo Shouldn't Be On Your Server — which seems to have stirred up a lot of discussion, including a thread on the Gentoo forums. From the post: "I firmly believe in updating server software only when you need to. If you don't need new features, and things are working, why change anything? If you update anything you will undoubtedly need to update configuration files. You will need to fix things that break in the upgrade process... This is hard with Gentoo. Gentoo wants you to change a lot of stuff. It wants to be bleeding edge."

Not for me!

[MarkRose]

I certainly wouldn't want a Gentoo on my servers. Sure, it wouldn't weigh [wikipedia.org] much, but think of the poop you'd have to clean up!

Redhat 6.2

[flyingfsck]

Don't fix it if it ain't broke: up 292 days, 22:26 The reason for the short uptime, is PSU upgrades...

Oh! I Guess Non-MS SW Has "Issues" Too!

[Anonymous Coward]

Gee!!! I thought that moving from Windows to any Linux-based anything would solve all the worlds's problems that Microsoft has caused!!!

Where, oh where, is the standard Slashdot drivel from you sanctimonious Slashdot twits?

My gentoo server...

[Maljin Jolt]

...is currently uptime 242 days. Updating daily.

So, now when server issue has been explained exhaustingly, we can talk about my gentoo programer's desktop, gentoo electronics lab and drill machinery controller, gentoo adsl/wifi router and gentoo tv/multimedia nano-itx box.

From my point of view, Siker is just a moron and I mean it seriously.

Re:*sigh*

[strider44]

And I heard the Debian Stable packages are from Debian Unstable as well. That definitely makes you think!

Re:Redhat 6.2

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm still running Redhat 6.2. I't my firewall box and it's stable as all hell. No hacks. No root kits. Pure security through and through. ALl I had to do was strip it down to the core and rebuild it every few months. It's on Linux kernel 2.6.16 right now and everything on it is updated to the latest modern stuff. So don't tell me it's not possible to have a secure and stable Redhat. Just shut the hell up with your ignorant lies. Oh... and I run Gentoo on 15 servers at work. Just keep 'em up to date and there's no problems.

Re:Redhat 6.2

[pipatron]

Dude, install NTP. Then you could have kept the machine going without those useless capacitors!

Re:This article makes good points.

[Hal_Porter]

in gentoo u just need emerge --backport --fuck-upstream --unrollloops [archive.org] --skip-rarely-taken-else-clauses --inlinelimit=9999999999999999999999

Re:Redhat 6.2

[cortana]

Are you kidding? This reminds me of the old adage about the 20 year old broom. 7 new handles and 12 new brushes and it still cleans as well as it did when it was new. :)

Re:This article makes good points.

[Hal_Porter]

Oh, come on. What distro, or for that matter, 'ANY OPEN SOURCE PRODUCT', doesn't come with a whole world of mailing lists, faq's and forums. Nothing special there. Move along.

The pages seem to load faster on the gentoo-wiki than most others though.