[lug] Attempted hack from 202.185.243.121

[Bear Giles]

> Regular releases is one reason.  This is more important than you might
> think.  I switched my main machine away from Debian because of this.
> This was before `testing' was around -- and even so, how much can you
> really trust testing?

A common solution to this is to use Debian for the "core" functions 
where updates don't matter that much (e.g., when was the last time you
really needed the most recent bash(1) or vi(1)?), and to pull out all
servers and "really must have updates" software into /opt/pkg/version.

You lose the ability to do apt-get against security.debian.org, but
that's offset by the fact that if you're running these servers "for real"
anyway then you'll be closely tracking updates anyway.  In the meanwhile,
you can build your system exactly like you want it.  (E.g., I'm running
Debian 'potato', but my apache is 1.3.24 + mod_ssl + mod_jk.)

The biggest downside is that over time more and more stuff gets migrated
into /opt.  E.g., "docbook" should be fairly stable, but when Debian hasn't
had a full release in several years you start running into problems with
your documents being a couple generations behind everyone else.
 
> I think corporations prefer Red Hat because it is perceived as the
> "leader", and also because there is a company behind it.  These
> reasons aren't as bogus as they sound.

Many people prefer Debian because it offers fine-grain control of what's
installed on a system. 

Bear