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They were probably running RHEL5, but even in 2014 they would have been in the Production 3 phase which is really should only be used for legacy purposes, and t

by batbomb 11y ago

They were probably running RHEL5, but even in 2014 they would have been in the Production 3 phase which is really should only be used for legacy purposes, and that's definitely not the sort of system you push new software to. Red Hat even pushes those customers towards virtualization because a) hardware rarely lasts 7 years and b) they won't bother backporting drivers for new hardware to the old kernel at that point. I still use a few RHEL5 machines but nobody would ever dream of pushing new software to them.

teh_klev 11y ago
In the real world...if you have a large fleet of RHEL5 boxes/VM's, this a fact of life. We're slowly phasing out our CentOS 5 boxes, but you still need to be able to run new software on them.
nine_k 11y ago
How about running a (newer) local version of Python, without of course touching the system Python? To my mind, it's usually a good idea not to use system Python, both packages and the interpreter, if you're not also controlling them. This makes building your deployables more involved, but makes the actual deployment more painless.
hueving 11y ago
>not the sort of system you push new software to. Telling customers that they are doing things wrong isn't really a great way to win customers.
- takeda 11y ago
  This is something I don't understand. If someone is using Java, they'll install the version of Java they need. If they use Ruby, they'll install the version of Ruby they need. If they need Lua, they'll do the same thing. Why everyone is relying on python that's installed there for RedHat's needs (e.g. yum). Unlike other languages, Python is probably the best one that can have multiple versions coexist together.
  - iofj 11y ago
    As a consultant I have very different experiences. Even in Java development you find shops that refuse to upgrade their JVM for various reasons. RHEL 5 is really common.
    - ghshephard 11y ago
      A lot (all that I'm familiar with) of the enterprise software packages that I've worked with ship with their own, very specific (read: regression tested against) version of java. Enterprise software usually requires a ton of servers, so it's not like anything else on those servers will be using the jvm.
  - teh_klev 11y ago
    > Why everyone is relying on python that's installed there for RedHat's needs Environments where the build of your server is strictly controlled and conservative...banks, mission critical apps, that kinda thing where stability from upstream is hugely important.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    AFAICT if you want support from Red Hat, you better not mess with the system configuration. It's probably best not to mess with too much on your production boxes anyway (maybe that's why Docker is so popular)

by batbomb 11y ago

teh_klev 11y ago

In the real world...if you have a large fleet of RHEL5 boxes/VM's, this a fact of life. We're slowly phasing out our CentOS 5 boxes, but you still need to be able to run new software on them.

nine_k 11y ago

How about running a (newer) local version of Python, without of course touching the system Python? To my mind, it's usually a good idea not to use system Python, both packages and the interpreter, if you're not also controlling them. This makes building your deployables more involved, but makes the actual deployment more painless.

hueving 11y ago

>not the sort of system you push new software to. Telling customers that they are doing things wrong isn't really a great way to win customers.

takeda 11y ago
This is something I don't understand. If someone is using Java, they'll install the version of Java they need. If they use Ruby, they'll install the version of Ruby they need. If they need Lua, they'll do the same thing. Why everyone is relying on python that's installed there for RedHat's needs (e.g. yum). Unlike other languages, Python is probably the best one that can have multiple versions coexist together.
- iofj 11y ago
  As a consultant I have very different experiences. Even in Java development you find shops that refuse to upgrade their JVM for various reasons. RHEL 5 is really common.
  - ghshephard 11y ago
    A lot (all that I'm familiar with) of the enterprise software packages that I've worked with ship with their own, very specific (read: regression tested against) version of java. Enterprise software usually requires a ton of servers, so it's not like anything else on those servers will be using the jvm.
- teh_klev 11y ago
  > Why everyone is relying on python that's installed there for RedHat's needs Environments where the build of your server is strictly controlled and conservative...banks, mission critical apps, that kinda thing where stability from upstream is hugely important.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  AFAICT if you want support from Red Hat, you better not mess with the system configuration. It's probably best not to mess with too much on your production boxes anyway (maybe that's why Docker is so popular)