Long thread - figured may as well toss in some data:
We use CentOS 5 and 6 and install PG from the yum repository detailed on
the postgresql.org web site.
We've found that the PG shipped as part of the OS can never be trusted
for production use, so we don't care what version ships with the OS --
we'll never use it.
Regarding JDK7 : some interesting GC features, but as a whole too scary
from a stability perspective to commit to in production. Considering
most of the good engineers have likely left due to Oracle management,
this is an area where we'll let others debug for a year or so before
considering adopting.
Regarding missing packages from desktop install : for production servers
we use the "minimal" install then explicitly add the packages we need
that are not part of that. From experience desktop distributions will
install stuff that a) creates security risks and/or b) creates stability
risks.
