Brian "Krow" Aker's Idle Thoughts - Oracle Linux, Distributions, Redux

I was talking to Elliot this morning a bit about Linux Distributions and it made me think a bit more about where we are at today.

Let me share my thoughts on this topic.

First, I'm really unhappy with the state of Linux distributions today. Its a tower of babel for the most part. Its a hope that the LSB will solve some of this, but today shipping on Linux is a real mess. Upgrading is a mess, especially for applications developed to rely on a stable platform.

Let us talk about the first distribution by sharing a story.

Last year I walk into a customer's shop and they asked me why MySQL is crashing. The problem?

"apt-get upgrade"

It was a mismatch of libraries on their Debian systems. Debian is a great distribution to play with, but unless you have an expert (and you probably do not!) I find that its not the most stable distribution to use. I do not see this changing even with HP backing the project.

Ubuntu gives me great hope for Linux on the desktop. Every time I turn around I meet another happy Ubuntu person. That is awesome, but it doesn't solve the problem of the Server. I've not found a peer yet using it as a server under any sort of load that makes me feel comfortable about deploying it at as a server. Ubuntu needs a win to get people onboard with them being a server distribution.

Redhat ES is still the 800lb gorilla. Problem is that its too expensive when you get thousands of servers (or even a hundred). There was a day and an age where libc problems kept rearing their heads but that seems to be mostly over. I'm not going to pay what they want me to pay. They don't present me with a value proposition that I like. I used to buy one copy of it each time it was released to keep my servers upgraded, but I stopped that after RH9.

CentOS is a knockoff, I am not crazy about knockoffs. It adds nothing. This is something I argued with Tridge about last year on a panel... to me open source is about extending, its not about just copying. Sometimes copying happens for commodization, fine, that is good for everyone. Most open source does a task and does it better. Its ability to do this through an open process is something I value. The right to fork to me is a fundamental right.

Oracle Enterprise Linux is in the same category at the moment as Centos, but I am hoping that they do more then just copy the bits. They are an ISV, which means they have the pain of shipping software. An ISV should put a lot more effort into the distribution then the average packager since they need to make sure the distribution works well for them. They have smart kernel engineers so they have the ability to do this. I've been asked about why in a recent blog post I mentioned that I am having a server shipped with OEL to me. I am hoping that they changed it, for the better :)

Fedora Core is what I use. Now why is that? Because it was the easiest upgrade path years ago from RH9. Am I happy with it? Mostly. I've found it to be stable, and while I have had issues with getting it to upgrade online, it works. The short life span is a pain, and yes I realize that this is deliberate. I get that, but it doesn't make me happy. Why overwrite an OEL install for Fedora Core? OEL needs some time to bake, and all of my other production servers are FC. Moving away from FC is an investment in time for me, and I am not willing to make it unless I see an upgrade path that I know will be around for the next decade.

rPath is a great idea but I need to see how upgrading is going to work with it. The Appliance concept I get, and I love, but appliances have data, and you need to be able to upgrade and keep your data (and yes in the back of my mind exists the idea of a Database distribution of rPath). I am currently testing the new Asterisk distribution which is based on rPath, I'll write more about this later.

Suse? It has just never entered into my radar. I am well aware that it has users, and I find a lot of Europeans who like it, but it has never done anything for me. The recent patent deal with Microsoft is just... from a community view, weird. It does not make me want to use the distribution, and it doesn't make me want to format any drive I find it running on. If Suse uses the FUD of patents though, I will of course change my mind.

And while its not Linux, its worth mentioning Open Solaris. Dealing with Solaris is like stepping back in time. None of the right tools come with it, the website to download it is byzantine and frankly no one seems to be able to point to what I would need to run it on generic hardware. I am well aware that Sun seells their selling servers with it running on it, but I hear more about Linux being installed on the boxes once they are deployed. Could Solaris make a come back? Yes. Will they overcome their own fear of the GPL and the attitude of "this is right for our customers", its doubtful. The larger the company, the slower it tends to move. I find this to be a shame, since when I graduated from undergraduate I bought a Sun because of quality (though the NeXT did have color....).

I'd like to see a winning Linux distribution, but right now the race is wide open as far as I am concerned. Fedora could improve on upgrades to the point where I was happy with it. Oracle could innovate and create a platform that ISVs would consider stable. Ubuntu could get a major win and we see sites move to it. Redhat could realize that they have created profit by creating a ceiling for adoption and find a new way to profit (since that ceiling is only going to drop...).