[ILUG] Suggestions for best 64 bit Linux distro?

[Joe Fitzsimons]

On Wednesday 29 June 2005 09:54, nadir at compsoc.nuigalway.ie wrote:

> > >> It would be insane to run it on a production server, particularly
> > >> if you've been messing with flags. You never know when that'll
> > >> come back to bite you in the ass.
> > >
> > > that is rubbish
> >
> > Another well-reasoned rebuttal from the Gentoo crowd.  You really
> > aren't doing your cause any favours, you know...
> >
> >      Colm
>
> isn't that a bit holier than thou,
> I havnt seen much to back up your arguments.

Ok, well my reasoning is this. In Gentoo you generally compile everything, and 
different people compile things differently (different processors etc.), even 
if they are necessarily messing with flags. The resulting binary you have on 
your pc is going to be different from what I would have on mine, which in 
turn would be different from what I would have running on our cluster, etc. 
As such none of these get anywhere near the testing that a standard binary 
does. 

Since running Gentoo necessarily implies running binaries which have not been 
tested to anywhere near the same extent, I believe it would be insane to use 
it for anything critical.

Yes, I know several people have said they use Gentoo, and their computer isn't 
broken, but that's hardly the point.  The point is how sure can you be that 
there isn't a nasty little bug in there somewhere, thats going to cause you 
trouble down the line.

Paul's argument  about it being bleeding edge is also relevant.

Joe