[H-GEN] Linux Distribution for A Dell Poweredge 840?

[Robert Brockway]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2007, David Jericho wrote:

> Robert Brockway wrote:
>> It is about security and managability, at least for me and others.
>
> How exactly does removing the installed documentation improve any of the
> above? On my standard RHEL baseline images, I have approximately 700 MB
> of documentation for 200 MB of actual system.

Hmm.. I think that may be a strawman argument.  I specifically said I 
advocated removing unneeded _software_ (or better, not installing it in 
the first place).  I made no mention of documentation at all.

>> Software that is not installed cannot be started to open a hole or
> cause other
>> problems. I always build boxes bottom up (starting from a pure base
>> install) and it is less time consuming than installing a lot of stuff
>> and pruning.
>
> And you're quite right. However it has been demonstrated time after time
> that this assumption is totally false and just not relevant in the real

Care to provide proof/references that it has been demonstrated time after 
time that this assumption is totally false?  This has not been my 
experience at all.

> world. If someone is intent upon violating existing policy, insecure
> software will find its way onto a machine.

A user may be able to install the software in $HOME but that's a far cry 
from being able to install it in a system directory or bind to a 
privileged port.

>> What makes you think Debian inspired poor admin practices?
>
> Same reason PHP is a poor programming language. A herd of a thousand
> cats, all doing their own uncoordinated thing, and leading to several
> thousand ways of doing the same task. Providing 15 different versions of

Hmm ... my feeling is that Debian is a tightly integrated system.  It 
tends to operate in a consistent manner in my experience.  I guess our 
experiences just differ.

> I just cannot have a resonable degree of surety that one Debian system
> is going to be very similar to another, even within the same

I think that is true of any install that has been around for a while.
Despite the best efforts of sysadmins eccentricities tend to emerge. 
This does not include cookie cutter built boxes of course (kickstart, 
jumpstart, etc).

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.        Phone:          +1-905-821-2327
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