# Which kernel is the best compromise between stability and ac

## gentoo-fan

Hi,

on the one hand a new kernel is a fine thing.

But on the other hand a new kernel could be

too new to be "rock solid" becuase it hasn't 

been tested enough.

What kernel do you suggest to use for a "rock

solid" dual-processor/scsi LAMPS-System?

And if it doesn't make to much trouble: why

is ReiserFS said to be sooo unstable.

Is that really true or does it depend on the

HASH I select?

Thank you very much!

gentoo-fan

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## phaze3k

I really don't know why ReiserFS is said to be so unstable, I've been using it for quite some time (~1 yr) without any problems, and there have been some pretty big deployments of it (MP3.com comes to mind).

In Linux terms XFS is arguably far less tested (note I'm not saying that's necessarily unstable).

For a 'rock solid' system I'd suggest a plain vanilla 2.4.18 kernel, although it depends on your definition of 'rock solid'.  I'm assuming you mean 'not going to trash all my data and crash every five minutes'.  If you mean you have a production server on which downtime will mean serious money in lost business, I'd suggest using Debian woody with a 2.2.19 (2.2.20 when it comes out) kernel.

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## klieber

 *gentoo-fan wrote:*   

> What kernel do you suggest to use for a "rock
> 
> solid" dual-processor/scsi LAMPS-System?

 

A kernel is a kernel is a kernel.  It's more a matter of the crap you pile on top of it that leads to instability.  

For a "rock solid" system, I would go with a 2.2.19 kernel and ext2 because those have been out for a long, long time and have been well-tested.  For that matter, I'd go with Debian Potato, because it's been out forever and is (IMO) the best-tested, most-stable linux distro out there.

However, "rock solid" comes at a price -- namely, older versions of software.  Don't expect "rock solid" and "php 4.2" and/or "Apache 2.0" to be in the same sentence.  

IMO, Gentoo should not be considered "rock solid" yet, nor would I consider running a mission critical server on it.  It's great for a desktop or for a development server, but it just hasn't matured enough to be considered production stable.   (nor should it be expected to - it's still a 1.x product and is continuing to improve at each step)

--kurt

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