I recommend RedHat.  My guess is that they'll be around longer than most
other commercial distros, and they give managers that warm fuzzy
name-brand recognition.  Plus, you can get a service agreement with RH,
unlike Debian (correct me if I'm wrong).
~M


On Mon, 19 Aug 2002, Sundar wrote:

> Thanks Blake. It will be good from management point of view to deal with
> another company and pay for it's services. This way they will take
> things seriously, rather than just as one time deployment or just to
> accommodate me. We pay real big bucks for each tester currently (eg. 300
> MHz pentium II hardware, nothing fancy is  $9000, only thing is if any
> part goes bust the company will supply the same model anytime in next 10
> years) . And when I checked Redhat/SuSSE, even with service agreements,
> we would almost save 70% - 85%.
>
> On getting locked to particular version of the distro, it is inevitable.
> We have to get it certified even if we add some more memory to any
> existing testers. In fact, I am administering 200 to 300 testers
> worldwide running VENIX(really old AT&T version of Unix) with 16MB ram.
> We cannot upgrade it or do anything else. One good thing is they have
> been humming with a hitch, not the newer Windows NT systems. Everyday at
> least 2 blue screens of death(go figure!).
>
> So, if this certification goes through I will be locked to the version,
> license agreements etc... for next 20 years for initial 150 testers at
> least.
>
> Cheers!
> Sundar
>
> Blake Barnett wrote:
>
> >All I can say, is be VERY careful (or liberal) with the wording you use
> >to get the certification.  At a past employer, they were too literal
> >with their definitions and we were stuck at an old version of the OS
> >specified, and weren't allowed to upgrade without re-certification!  So
> >just be careful.
> >
> >I'd recommend Debian, but you'll get 20 different answers to which
> >distro to choose.
> >
> >
> >On Mon, 2002-08-19 at 11:13, Sundar wrote:
> >
> >>Hello,
> >>
> >>Finally, I managed to convince our management to get a Linux based test
> >>system to test our products(Pacemakers, De-Fibrillators.....) . Now I
> >>have to decide on RedHat, SuSE or any other and get it approved by FDA.
> >>I know, it's going to be a long time(6 months to an year). Documentation
> >>itself is going to take atleast 3 months.  But, I guess it is better
> >>late than never.
> >>
> >>Now to the question -- Have any of you implemented the systems like
> >>this(testing medical electronic equipments or electronic equipments in
> >>general). We will be using LabVIEW(from National Instruments) to develop
> >>the applications. I need your anecdotal experiences and others, if you
> >>have come across similar situations.
> >>
> >>And what do you think as the good company to go with. I have good
> >>exposure to RedHat, decent exposure to SuSE  and played around with others.
> >>
> >>Any pointers welcome.
> >>
> >>Thanks,
> >>Sundar
> >>
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