Why does Moodle Docs for 2.4 install dated Sept.15th 2012 (http://docs.moodle.org/24/en/Step-by-step_Installation_Guide_for_Ubuntu) instruct to use Ubuntu 10.04 when the link to Ubuntu shows Ubuntu 12.04 LTS ( longterm service) as currently available and 10.04 as soon to be no longer supported?
Which should we load? - Which is Moodle 2.4 designed to work best with ? Any major concerns for either? Looking for simple & stabil- nothing more.
Hi Ethan,
I don't know why the documentation page that you mention states Ubuntu 10.04. As you're most likely aware, Moodle Docs is a wiki and so anyone can create a page and start writing documentation. I suggest you follow the general instructions provided in Installing Moodle and post in the Installation help forum if you have any further questions.
If you are using ubuntu as your server operating system, you can use either - although i would suggest using the latest LTS release at the time. So long as you add the latest LAMP stack onto the server that is the important bit (ie. having the proper php versions etc.) I've actually got moodle2.3 on an ancient laptop that is still running Ubuntu 8 - not my main system, but one I stuck moodle onto when I was testing some backup/restore functions and didn't want to mess with my main development system. As far as i am aware the requirements between 2.3 and 2.4 are not massively different so you should have no problem with either Ubuntu 10 or 12, but as I said originally, if you are installing the OS anyway, go for the most upto date one
Richard
Hi Visvanath,
Indeed!
I hope my post didn't add to that confusion - but in case it did, my advice would be:
You can install Moodle2.4 on Ubuntu10.04. However, the only reason for doing this is if you already have the server set up on 10.04 with lots of other software on it that would make it difficult to upgrade. In that case, if everything is working and stable, why change (assuming you have kept all the security fixes etc. upto date!)?
You should use the latest LTS release whenever practical, as this will have the most upto date software packages, security fixes and the longest support time into the future.
In either case, you should ideally be using the Ubuntu Server packages rather than the desktop ones - although, in truth, although I would put anything going out on the web onto a proper server install, my own development system is in a XAMP environment on my laptop, and I use Mint for that rather than Ubuntu
Also bear in mind that if you are using Linux as your server OS, there are other alternatives besides Ubuntu, although this is probably not the right place to get into a comparison of them :D
To return to your point though Visvanath, I think that a number of the documents do need this kind of tidying up, but I understand this is an ongoing process. It seems to stem from the practice of rolling the docs over into the new version as a bulk action (as the majority of docs won't change between point versions) and then having to find the issues that need editing. As I don't have a practical alternative to this option though, I'm not in a position to (nor do I wish to!) criticise it - the whole of moodle seems to change so quickly in response to the wishes and demands of the community that keeping up with and tracking changes in documentation like this must be a Hurculean task! But perhaps that could be made slightly simpler when refering to external software like in this example, byt refering to 'the latest stable release' or something similar rather than having to ammend version numbers when other external software is refered to
Richard
Thank-you for the reply! We have followed the posted advice, as I would have guessed (using the newer version) however the concern stems from a similiar issue with Big Blue Button where the newer OS (namely 12.04) would not work with the program (a real shame). To add to our woes, the older Ubuntu 10.04 (as recommended by BBB) would not load onto the brand new state of the art server as most of the drivers were out dated. So we had a new server unable to use an older OS to run the open source conferencing BgBluBtn. After challenging both sides of the equation ( asked BBB if we could use 12.04- answr NO, Looked for dirvers for the new hardware for the old OS 10.04 = no luck) we ended up with overkill in the new server running Moodle and then dusting off an older (6 yr) server that met all the specs of BBB and pointing to that. Perhaps wrongly we assumed that the virtual classroom or conferening program would be more hardware demanding and that is why we went with the latest and the best server. Good for Moodle, a loss for BgBluBtn!
Post Note- We did ask Fred if there was anything coming from BBB, newer version that could operate in Ubuntu12.04, but nothing soon enough!
So 10.04 to 12.04 not always as simple a choice as we would like.
Cheers
The operating system is not the issue - Moodle can be installed on any operating system provided it supports the php/mysql requirements for the Moodle version you are using.
It can be installed on Linux, Windows or Mac, depending on your needs and whether you are setting up a localhost testing system (any desktop with XAMP can be used if you dont have access to a webserver - or want to carry it around on your laptop) or a full Moodle install for multiple thousand users (a full server set up, probably with several load balnced servers etc. - for which I would myself go with a proper Linux server distribution)
Richard
You just have to read the installation documentation
