[Beowulf] Distros - Fermi, Scientific Linux

[Geoff Galitz]

> A major premise for using either distro is their claim for long term
support 
> (LTS).
> 
> I'm curious to know how many folks on this list use either distro and what
has 
> been your experience (and usefulness) of LTS?


------------------------------------------------

In my UC Berkeley days I routinely installed Scientific Linux on new
clusters.  The long LTS was a major factor contributing to my usage of it.
Security updates, in particular, were of high-priority.

I'd also do a general update if we made a major change to the cluster (new
nodes or some particularly finicky major new code)... so I found the LTS to
be quite useful.  In terms of general support we were self-sufficient enough
that we could apply bugfixes or patches out-of-stream if necessary.  

-geoff