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jhwilliams 02-18-2013 11:08 PM

Most Stable Linux Release Ever?
 
What do you think is the most stable Linux distro / release version you've experienced?

Ubuntu and Fedora are out because they change all the time and are an absolute shit show, imho. (I use and love both.)

Debian Etch is a contender imho. The quality of System Integration from the Debian developers is amazing. If you can live in a world several years old, it's hard to beat.

I wonder if there are projects that take Debian Stable and refine it even further, creating uber stable works of Art and Science that just basically have no bugs? Of course, having release bugs and keeping them is part of "stability" as workarounds come to be known and used, even pushed to package management.

Sorry to start another "which distro?" style thread, but hopefully the focus is reasonably narrow.

chrism01 02-19-2013 12:37 AM

It depends on your exact definition, but I'd say RHEL has got to be a contender.

jhwilliams 02-19-2013 02:28 AM

+1; the RHEL / CentOS installs I worked with ~6 years back were really reliable. Is there a specific version you felt was most reliable? Hard to abstract away newly well supported hardware in kernel versions, and other major package revisions, I know.

JESSEJJ89 02-19-2013 02:37 AM

Debian for desktops

RHEL for servers

CentOS is a great alternative for both.

Keep in mind it takes a "stable" user to keep any distro stable. I've had my gentoo system installed since 2009, and have't had a single breakage.

qlue 02-19-2013 05:02 AM

Well, as usual it's the use-case that defines the answer here. For my own personal use I've found Crunchbang#! to be the best and most stable for me!
Of, course, Crunchbang#! is simply a slimmed down version of Debian. So if you need something with a little more meat, then Debian would be the better choice.

TobiSGD 02-19-2013 05:38 AM

You will never get a distro without bugs and using old distributions (that are not supported anymore) is far from being recommended, simply because nop one fixes bugs and security holes in them. If you want something very stable go for Debian, RHEL (or one of its clones) or Slackware.
If you don't restrict yourself to Linux look at one of the BSDs, also.

jefro 02-19-2013 03:00 PM

Both hardware and software need to be fully tested. Big name companies test some or a few versions of linux on their enterprise level systems. My choices would be some system that is sold pre-loaded with an OS. Just because a computer boots doesn't mean it is stable. Just because a computer runs windows doesn't mean it can run linux.

As above, the BSD's tend to be good choices for reasons. One is they are conservative usually in many of the inner settings.


Conservative settings in linux and things like ECC ram and even bios settings may be keys to a more stable system. If you buy cheap junk hardware that was never tested then you can expect it to fail.

John VV 02-19-2013 03:42 PM

personal experience
RHEL/CentOS/ScientificLinux

i have only had 1 ( one) crash in 5 years and that was 100% MY FAULT

besides using SL6.3 i also consider it an EMERGENCY back up

if OpenSUSE dies i KNOW that SL6.3 will work

jhwilliams 02-19-2013 05:19 PM

A lot of votes for RHEL/CentOS. While not the only answer, seems to be a clear winner from the responses.

chrism01 02-19-2013 06:49 PM

Look at it this way RHEL (& clones) are the most widely used in commerce ... there's a reason for that :)
As above, they are usually run on HW that has been tested by the manufacturer to be stable with that distro.


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