On Thursday 01 November 2001 09:46, you wrote:
> I am just about to update my Linux box and Distro (SuSE 7.3) or what are
> your recommendations?
Good enough choice. I was thinking about ordering 7.3 myself and upgrading
to it.
> Choice of FileSystem, which one should I go for?
>
> Main uses ::
>
> Development Box :: C++, Java, DB, WebServer(Apache,PHP,Jakarta/Cocoon)
> Personal Not InterNetWorked. (Although ADSL...)
>
> 7.3 seems to come with
>
> ext2 (which i trashed so am reticent to use. Update / Botched seemed to be
> start of the troubles)
> ext3
> JFS
> Reiser
With SuSE, ReiserFS and ext2 are the best supported. ext3 and JFS are too
new, and the initial installer doesn't offer them as options (according to
review I've read). Basically unless you don't mind restoring from backup,
it's probably best to let new filesystems bed down on early adopter boxes.
Reiser and SuSE seem to be a good mix, I've not seen SuSE users reporting
problems with it in alt.os.linux.suse, contrary to experience of say Red Hat
users who install their own Linus standard kernels. The reason is, that good
distros do do some integration testing before a release, and their kernel
code, will contain patches that Linus may release later (probably in response
to feedback, the 2.4.11/12 release fiasco with softlinks being incorrect, was
probably reported so rapidly, because of this testing, 2.4.11 and YaST2 are
incompatible).
ext2 is useful for compatibility, if you need it with older installs, or
importing/exporting data on disks used in other machines. Also if you want
to play with the additional ext3 options (include full data journalling, not
just meta-data journaling).
Reiser is particularly fast and suited for filesystems with many small files,
like soft links for example, the data can be packed to avoid wasting space.
Though for max speed in a temporary file area, the notails option can be used
for maximum throughput.
More interesting than JFS (unless IBM compat is important to you), is XFS
which however requires large patching to kernel, due to it's delayed
allocation policy. It's particularly suited for large files, and (possibly)
temporary spool areas.
It's too early to say, comparisions and experience of reliability, stability
and performance of the various filesystems will take many months rather than
weeks, for the winners to become clearer.
Personally I've used Reiser in most file systems, except my small root, /,
/boot for ease of booting and maintenance (compatible with another Linux
install I have on system). If you do have Reiser on / (probably a good now
idea, you may need to ensure a module is loaded via initrd and also use
notails option, when copying in files used for booting (so lilo can work).
> I presume 7.3 comes with 2.4.4 /5 kernel
2.4.10 based actually, though there are already updates available (from SuSE).
> XFree4.1
> Kde
2.2.1
Yes, and
http://www.suse.com/en/products/suse_linux/i386/packages_professional/index.html
gives you a complete list.
Rob
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