Gentoo will install on sparc boxes now. If you like the BSD style ports tree, gentoo is probably the way to go. It takes awhile to install since it compiles everything (there may be a binary installer CD for it now though), but Gentoo works sweet, and has a nice clean build environment since it's set up to compile everything from scratch when you install a package. Jay > -----Original Message----- > From: Amy Tanner [mailto:amy at real-time.com] > Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 9:21 AM > To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org > Subject: Re: [TCLUG] sparc linux > > > On Thu, Jun 20, 2002 at 04:19:42PM -0500, Yaron > (jethro at freakzilla.com) wrote: > > Hey, > > > > On Thu, 20 Jun 2002, Amy Tanner wrote: > > > > > I've got a bunch of sparc boxes (9 Sun Ultra 10s and 1 Sun > > > Enterprise 3500) that I'd like to put linux on. > > > > Why oh WHY do you want to do that? > > > > Ok, on Ultra-10s, maybe, but why put Linux on an E3500? > > > > Now, I have in fact installed Linux on an E-3500. Worked fine, even > > with the weirdo disk array conneected to it. But Solaris on > the same > > machine was faster and more stable. Solaris 8 is free, too. > > Lots of reasons...but mainly ease of maintenance and because > no one here has experience with Solaris. My experience with > Solaris ended nearly 6 years ago and it wasn't much then. We > are trying to consolidate all the OSs we manage (linux, > solaris, AIX, IRIX, FreeBSD, windows) down to as few as > possible (linux, windows). > > > I know people think I'm flame-baiting whenever I go on a seemingly > > anti-linux thing, but please understand that occasionally there are > > situations where Linux is not the best choice. Of course, > you do have > > the advantage of experience with Linux in this case, but is > going from > > Red Hat to debian really all THAT different than going from > Red Hat to > > Solaris? (: > > Since I haven't used Solaris recently, I'm not sure. I would > guess that RedHat & debian are alot more similar than RedHat > & Solaris, though. > > It would be nice to have similar maintenance procedures using > APT, the ability to automate the updates, and the ability to > kickstart boxes. With 2 administrators to maintain hundreds > of boxes, the more that can be automated, re-used, and the > less time things take, the better. And, in this case, that > is more important than performance for what the E-3500 is > actually doing (print server). We have pretty strict > guidelines on getting security updates installed as quickly > as possible. > > So, given that, since you have installed linux on similar > hardware, do you have any tips you can share? :) > > -- > Amy Tanner > amy at real-time.com >