[clue-tech] RedHat/CentOS version 5

[David L. Anselmi]

Mike Staver wrote:
> Does anybody know when RedHat Enterprise 5.X is due out? I ask because I 
> use CentOS a lot, and the biggest gripe I have is that there is no solid 
> upgrade option from version 3.x to 4.x without breaking a lot of things. 

Did CentOS add that feature or Red Hat?

What's the support lifespan for RHE?  If they support version 4 for 5 
years (or whatever) then you have 5 years from its release before you 
have to upgrade regardless when version 5 comes out.

I seem to remember RH saying they wanted an 18 month or 2 year release 
cycle (stability for their customers).

If infrequent, mass upgrades are painful you might consider Debian 
testing.  I upgrade a few packages every month and never need to do a 
complete upgrade[1].  Honestly I think that the typical major upgrade 
every few years (ala RH, Sun, Microsoft) is obsolete.  Just need to find 
the time to write the white paper.

  1. Yes these are production systems, if low budget.  They only run 
stock Debian packages so I don't do any pre-upgrade testing except to 
look at the upgrade list and make sure nothing is breaking.  If they did 
run 3rd party, more complicated apps I think I'd do the same thing.  But 
I'd have the budget for a test machine to experiment on.

Dave