We are getting closer and closer to our ZetaPanel 2.0 launch, however we have realized that the distrobution we use now, is not what we really want to be relying on anymore. We currently run the last releases of Ubuntu on our machines, however in recent release we have been noticing that Ubuntu repo’s are starting to stay really stale, and not getting latest versions or even latest stable versions of important software we use to keep opensim up and running on top of our own infrastructure. So we are going to be migrating to Debian, one of the oldest linux distrobutions, that operates on rolling release. This is not a very large crazy change, as Ubuntu is actually built on top of Debian.

Why Going To Debian?
Debian unlike many distributions, is a rolling release with several branches. We can run from old, stable, and testing. This means, that we can use Debian on our servers, and just do our regular updates and pull in the latest stable code. Debian team is very large and backed by many enterprise and corporate sponsors. However, even thought that is said, it is much like opensim in the since that it is not owned by a pacific company and it is truly free and opensource operating system. However, it being in existence for so many years, it has made itself known as one of the most stable linux distributions around.

The other reason for Debian being our choice, is we believe in opensource software and technology. Debian by default only uses opensource free technology in their development. This means you can take any part of the Debian operating system and make changes to it legally, just like you can with opensim. We feel that this is a perfect match for us, to have both the operating system being as opensource like the platform opensim is opensource.  This makes us feel more comfortable, as we continue our development of ZetaPanel 2.0 which we will be offering as SaaS(Software as a Service) and giving out parts of its source code on github and bitbucket.

What Does This Mean For Me?
This doesn’t mean to much directly effect you the customer, other than we will experience a breif interruption in our services when we migrate from Ubuntu to Debian. However, we will just be moving you to our redundant servers and just cycle people through until we get everyone moved around successfully. So in other words, very little downtime and some small interruptions.

When Does This Go Down?
We are planning to do this the first week of the new year, so from January 6 to the 8th. Again, our customers will only experience up to 1 to 2 hours of downtime during this whole process, this is because we plan to rotate our clients around on other servers, and do them one at a time. Meaning, little to no downtime for many.

So will ZetaPanel 2.0 Be Ready Aftwards?
Yes, in fact this is part of the reason we are doing this transition. We needed a system that has up to date packages we can rely on that will make sure our ZetaPanel 2.0 software will run properly. It will be our final step to bringing ZetaPanel 2.0 to the public for thier public usage. We are very excited about this and can’t wait for everyone to start enjoying ZetaPanel 2.0.