2.4. De ce distribuția Debian?
Once the Linux family has been selected, a more specific option must be chosen. Again, there are plenty of criteria to consider. The chosen distribution must be able to operate for several years, since the migration from one to another would entail additional costs (although less than if the migration were between two totally different operating systems, such as Windows or OS X).
Sustainability is, thus, essential, and it must guarantee regular updates and security patches over several years. The timing of updates is also significant, since, with so many machines to manage, Falcot Corp cannot handle this complex operation too frequently. The IT department, therefore, insists on running the latest stable version of the distribution, benefiting from the best technical assistance, and guaranteed security patches. In effect, security updates are generally only guaranteed for a limited duration on older versions of a distribution.
Finally, for reasons of homogeneity and ease of administration, the same distribution must run on all the servers and office computers.
2.4.1. Distribuții comerciale sau conduse de comunitate
There are two main categories of Linux distributions: commercial and community-driven. The former, developed by companies, are sold with commercial support services. The latter are developed according to the same open development model as the free software of which they are comprised.
A commercial distribution will have, thus, a tendency to release new versions more frequently, in order to better market updates and associated services. Their future is directly connected to the commercial success of their company, and many have already disappeared (Caldera Linux, StormLinux, Mandriva Linux, etc.).
O distribuție condusă de comunitate urmează doar planificarea proprie. Ca nucleul Linux, versiunile noi sunt lansate când sunt stabile, niciodată mai devreme. Supraviețuirea lor este garantată, atâta timp cât are destui dezvoltatori sau firme terțe să o susțină.
O comparație între diferitele distribuții de GNU/Linux a condus la alegerea lui Debian din mai multe motive:
Este o distribuție comunitară, cu dezvoltarea asigurată independent de constrângerile comerciale; obiectivele sale sunt, astfel, esențial de natură tehnică, care pare să favorizeze calitatea de ansamblu a produsului.
Of all community distributions, it is the most significant from many perspectives: in number of contributors, number of software packages available, and years of continuous existence. The size of its community is an incontestable witness to its continuity.
Statistically, new versions are released every 18 to 24 months, and they are supported for 5 years, a schedule which is agreeable to administrators.
Un studiu al mai multor firme franțuzești care oferă servicii specializate pe programe libere a arătat că toate oferă asistență tehnică pentru Debian; de asemenea, este distribuția aleasă pentru utilizarea internă de multe dintre ele. Această diversitate de potențiali furnizori este o valoare importantă pentru independența firmei Falcot S.R.L.
Finally, Debian is available on a multitude of architectures, including ppc64el for OpenPOWER processors; it will, thus, be possible to install it on Falcot Corp's latest IBM servers.
Once Debian has been chosen, the matter of which version to use must be decided. Let us see why the administrators have picked Debian Bullseye.
