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- May 17, 2014
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At work they are migrating everything to RHEL. In one case it made a bit of sense. We have a mixture of mostly RHEL, then some AIX and Solaris. They have been threatening to get rid of Solaris since I started 4 years ago. Has not happened, though they did migrate some functions to RHEL.
We have multiple problems with RHEL.
The biggest is that some security tool we are contractually required to use, breaks every Linux kernel update. That vendor, (not Red Hat), is working on kernel API agnostic version. But, it is not here. So we occasionally have to delay RHEL patching that includes a kernel patch until that vendor can validate their software. (Or really, give us a new version that we can deploy BEFORE the new kernel update).
The Linux people call this kernel API breakage a "Feature". Real Unix OSes like Solaris, FreeBSD & AIX, (shudder), don't have this problem. Of course, those other Unix OSes may have other problems.
Next problem with RHEL is backing out a patch. Our AIX LPARs use broken mirrors for their root volume group as back out plan for the OS prior to patching. Have not really had to use that back out plan much.
Solaris of course uses alternate boot environments via ZFS snapshots & clones to allow booting to prior versions of the OS. We HAVE used this on occasion. For example, when an application person went wild with "chmod -R" or "chown -R" from the wrong directory, as "root". (Yes, we know app people should not have "root", I am still fighting that battle, and making progress...)
RHEL back out? It's either restore the server from the prior night's VMWare snapshot backup. (Which requires the VMWare team, AND paperwork, to perform that operation.) Or manually back out all the patches. No simple reboot to the old OS just before patching.
I experimented at home with alternate boot environments under Linux. Even 3 different flavors, and later experimenting, (but not actually using), a 4th.
So back to my title, "Sometimes I had Linux". I use Linux more or less exclusively at home, (except for TrueNAS). Every now and then I have to fight with it to get something done. But, I wish Linux "Distros" gave a better experience. So I can't see the "year of Linux desktop" happening this decade.
Linux kernel needs less new features, except drivers for new hardware. But, we need more kernel stability and better distros.
We have multiple problems with RHEL.
The biggest is that some security tool we are contractually required to use, breaks every Linux kernel update. That vendor, (not Red Hat), is working on kernel API agnostic version. But, it is not here. So we occasionally have to delay RHEL patching that includes a kernel patch until that vendor can validate their software. (Or really, give us a new version that we can deploy BEFORE the new kernel update).
The Linux people call this kernel API breakage a "Feature". Real Unix OSes like Solaris, FreeBSD & AIX, (shudder), don't have this problem. Of course, those other Unix OSes may have other problems.
Next problem with RHEL is backing out a patch. Our AIX LPARs use broken mirrors for their root volume group as back out plan for the OS prior to patching. Have not really had to use that back out plan much.
Solaris of course uses alternate boot environments via ZFS snapshots & clones to allow booting to prior versions of the OS. We HAVE used this on occasion. For example, when an application person went wild with "chmod -R" or "chown -R" from the wrong directory, as "root". (Yes, we know app people should not have "root", I am still fighting that battle, and making progress...)
RHEL back out? It's either restore the server from the prior night's VMWare snapshot backup. (Which requires the VMWare team, AND paperwork, to perform that operation.) Or manually back out all the patches. No simple reboot to the old OS just before patching.
I experimented at home with alternate boot environments under Linux. Even 3 different flavors, and later experimenting, (but not actually using), a 4th.
- Extra OS partition, referenced by a different Grub entry. Each patch session makes a copy to that other partition, so easy back out is to reboot and select different Grub entry. Used this for a few years.
- BTRFS - I used this for a while, but I never felt safe using it. BTRFS initially had some quirks in that you could not name a clone on creation, thus you had to edit the prior & new boot environment's "/etc/fstab" AFTER you created the clone. That was fixed. Again used this for a few years on some home Linux computers.
- LVM extra volume - It is possible to have another OS volume in LVM and boot off it. A simple OS copy with RSync or such and away you go. Similar to the "Extra OS partition", except you can have LVM manage it. I tested this, it works, though never used it at home.
- ZFS - It's the best of the 4, even under Linux and exclusively what I use today. Enough said.
So back to my title, "Sometimes I had Linux". I use Linux more or less exclusively at home, (except for TrueNAS). Every now and then I have to fight with it to get something done. But, I wish Linux "Distros" gave a better experience. So I can't see the "year of Linux desktop" happening this decade.
Linux kernel needs less new features, except drivers for new hardware. But, we need more kernel stability and better distros.