CentOS docs - Jan 2015 - Pull Request wiki.c.o/AdditionalResources/Repositories

On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 4:31 PM, Karanbir Singh <mail-lists at karan.org>
wrote:
> On 14/01/15 23:38, PatrickD Garvey wrote:
>
>> Please help us (me, especially) understand what we may be doing to the
>> detriment of your use of CentOS and thereby avoid that negative
>> result.
>
> Lets flip this around - just going by your comments in the last few
> days, it seems to me that you dont actually use CentOS Linux at all and
> are largely unaware of how this ecosystem works.
>
> so, from your point of view, as a user - what is it that you use CentOS
> and what sort of roles do you deploy it in ?
I am a retired programmer/system administrator. The last systems I
maintained were IBM System/6000 running AIX and CATIA, a 3D
computer-aided design package.

I want to use CentOS to explore the aspects of operating systems that
I was not allowed to explore with a proprietary system. I had a couple
of 32-bit machines I intended to make into my lab, but the Linux
community seems to have moved on to 64-bit images.

So, while I acquire a new set of machines, I'm reading and trying to
improve the documentation surrounding a particular distribution of
Linux, CentOS.

Any opinions I express are based on my 27 years in large corporations
that used computers developed and sold by other companies, which
includes 20 years ordering, receiving, installing, configuring, and running
IBM equipment for large corporations.

On 01/15/2015 02:56 AM, PatrickD Garvey wrote:
> [...]
>
> I want to use CentOS to explore the aspects of operating systems that
> I was not allowed to explore with a proprietary system. I had a couple
> of 32-bit machines I intended to make into my lab, but the Linux
> community seems to have moved on to 64-bit images.
If the microprocessors you have were built this decade, they probably 
support PAE in which case CentOS 6 should run just fine. I am in the 
process of [slowly] phasing out 8..12 yrs old machines which still run 
quite happily CentOS5 and I am deploying C6 on their replacements.
In other news, the new procs have much lower power consumption so beyond 
offering access to a larger set of applications, new systems pay 
themselves via saved energy

On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 7:03 PM, Manuel Wolfshant
<wolfy at nobugconsulting.ro> wrote:
> On 01/15/2015 02:56 AM, PatrickD Garvey wrote:
>> I want to use CentOS to explore the aspects of operating systems that
>> I was not allowed to explore with a proprietary system. I had a couple
>> of 32-bit machines I intended to make into my lab, but the Linux
>> community seems to have moved on to 64-bit images.
>
> If the microprocessors you have were built this decade, they probably
> support PAE in which case CentOS 6 should run just fine. I am in the
process
> of [slowly] phasing out 8..12 yrs old machines which still run quite
happily
> CentOS5 and I am deploying C6 on their replacements.
> In other news, the new procs have much lower power consumption so beyond
> offering access to a larger set of applications, new systems pay themselves
> via saved energy
>
If the microprocessors I have were built this decade, it was at the
farthest chronological end of that period. I have spent some time
examining the various Linux sub-communities and that, I'm afraid has
essentially obsoleted my hardware. Additionally, I'd rather start with
the most current edition of the OS so any knowledge will be applicable
to what comes next. I seem to understand there has been quite a shift
in the init system details from C6 to C7. Since details are what I
enjoy studying, I prefer to study what will be around for a while.

Thank you for your encouragement. I'll get some hardware soon and
proceed from there. Learning to manage a cross-compiling environment
could be an interesting study that would include both sets of
machines.