Hello all.


On 06/27/2014 09:44 PM, Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 08:17:19PM +0100, Mark Rousell wrote:
>>
>> However, based upon the balance of probabilities, it looks likely that
>> SL7 will not be based directly on RHEL7 but on CentOS.
>> If so, ... why continued with SL at all.
>>
> 
> The 800lbs gorilla in the room is CERN (and other large physics labs),
> who require a linux (some linux) to run the large compute farms
> for analysis of LHC data.

Since I'm involved in Linux @ CERN, let me answer your questions:

> 
> For historical reasons, this linux has been Red Hat based
> (and we know it under the names "SL" and "SLC").
> 
> Will it remain Red Hat based?

Yes. (as already mentioned by others in this thread:
     http://cern.ch/linux/nextversion.shtml)

> Will the next cern linux be ubuntu/debian based?

No.

> Will Red Hat relax their rules to keep CERN (and the HEP community)?

Not sure which rules are we talking about. (but I'm not aware of
any special rules for CERN as a Red Hat customer)

> 
> As an added kink, with the major changes from RHEL6 to RHEL7,
> the cost of going from SLC6 to RHEL based SLC7 becomes comparable
> to going from SLC6 to a ubuntu/debian based SLC?

Absolutely not. Starting migration from SLC6 to CentOS 7 requires minor
tweaks to some of our in-house configuration / system mgmt. tools.
Changing to a different platform would be a whole new story ...

[ I'm not talking about experiments software stacks here,
  some of these may be validated on other platforms, some not ..
  Same applies to 3rd party commercial products ]

> Whatever the case, there will continue to exist a linux of production quality
> and of free or affordable cost.
> 

Best Regards

Jarek

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