[erlang-questions] Favored Linux distributions?

[Raimo Niskanen]

On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 03:12:05PM -0400, John Chandler wrote:
> Is there a consensus as to what distribution of Linux is most  
> suitable to
> Erlang development, or does it even matter much?
> 
> I am about to specify a virtual server that offers a choice of Ubuntu  
> 7.10, Debian 4, CentOS 5, Fedora Core 7 & 8, Mandriva 2000, and  
> OpenSUSE 10.3.

Currently, the major platforms we build and daily test are
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 and Solaris 8/9/10.
But that is mostly because ClearCase runs on these,
and does not necessarily make them the best platform
to develop or run production on.

We also test on Fedora, OpenSuSE, Ubuntu et.al. Quote from README:

At Ericsson we have a "Daily Build and Test" that runs on:
 
    Operating system        Versions
    -----------------------------------------------------------
    Solaris/Sparc32         8, 9, 10
    Linux/Suse x86	    9.3, 10.1
    Linux/Suse Amd64	    9.3, 10.1
    Linux/Montavista PPC    3.1
    FreeBSD x86             5.0
    Mac OS X/Intel          10.4.11 (Tiger)
    Mac OS X/Intel          10.5.3 (Leopard)
    Windows x86		    XP SP2, 2003, Vista

End quote.

The platform you choose to develop on and the one you
choose to run production on is probably up to your own
demands, like our ClearCase demand. The fancy modern
distros a'la Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuSE are probably
nice to develop on because all the other tools they
contain. Debian is probably more stable for production
and Solaris 10 often outperform Linux for high load
and also have a stability reputation. Even e.g OpenBSD
might be a production choice for security if you do
not need SMP performance.

If you just need the latest Erlang/OTP I do not know
which distros have got the most updated packages,
but if you build from source you know what you have.

> 
> -jmc
> 
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-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB