Hi! Is it normal to have a new server come installed with an old version of php, apache etc? I'm not talking about having the last stable versions installed (which aren't always the latest releases), just unnecessarily old IMO.

Here's what my new server (got it about 2 weeks ago) came installed with:

PHP: 4.3.9 (!)
Apache/2.0.52
phpMyAdmin 2.10.1
MySQL client version: 4.1.22
etc

I understand everyone eventually ends up adjusting it to their needs and installs whichever version they find to be the most suitable for them, but I didn't expect I'd have to do it right away... PHP especially (issues with Joomla, etc).

I'm just wondering if this is a standard practice, or just with my server.

Thanks!

It mostly depends on what distribution, control panels, and other packages are requested as the dependencies of those will dictate the versions of the packages necessary.

There is also a delay between what's in the wild and what we're burning to the servers. This is generally due to the fact that we need to make sure of compatibility between all of the servers we have and that our provisioning process is streamlined. Not to mention, Linux is always moving full steam ahead.

It seems that a majority of our customers would rather us burn the tested packages and then they upgrade if necessary. Some customers prefer only to upgrade when there's a security issue or a feature they want and some want to upgrade daily. This is more of a personal preference, but it's also easier to upgrade than downgrade.

Also keep in mind that RH backports so the version numbers will appear old but are not - for security stuff, for functionality they are often behind.

Pending on the setup, you could have just receive a default version, or what the rep whom installed it was familiar with. I'm sure you can always 'specify' the version you want when ordering it.

Another way to look at it is that you'll have to update software over time anyway, so this way you get to make sure everything updates smoothly before you put sites on the server