[TriLUG] ubuntu as a server distro?

[David Rasch]

On Tue, Jun 07, 2005 at 07:33:14PM -0400, "David W. Aquilina" <david at starkindler.us> wrote:
> 
> I think what a lot of people (or at least enterprises) look for in a distribution to put on servers is a slightly different form of stability, and longevity. 
> 
> I don't mean stability as in "it won't crash" (though that's always a plus!), rather that a security update won't break other parts of the system or change the system's behavior in certain ways. This is one of the main points for enterprise distributions such as RHEL. In theory, significant behhaviors of the system won't change. See also http://www.redhat.com/advice/speaks_backport.html.
> 
> Most enterprises are also concerned about a particular release's longevity - how long will security updates be available for that particular version? This is why I generally recommend against using Fedora as a server - the software itself will work fine, but Fedora has generally a 6 month lifecycle. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to be performing potentially distruptive upgrades eevery 6 months on a system that I want to be as highly available as possible. 
> 
> I'm not sure how Ubuntu rates on those points, or even if they're important points for you. Food for thought, anyways. 
> 
> (Personally, I use RHEL 4 on my server. Not just because it's stable and will get security updates for the next seven years, but because it's what I'm most familiar with as well)

I'd agree that I use slightly different criteria to evaluate a server
distribution as opposed to a desktop distribution.

In particular I also look for a longer release cycle, well-tested
security updates and compatibility with the software I need to run.

Me personally, and my company find this stability, reliability, and
longevity in Debian (Woody up until yesterday, soon testing will be
underway for migration to Sarge).  

However, since I've followed the tireless tradition of not answering the
question....In my experience I've setup a Ubuntu server here at home for
my MythTV setup and it's working quite well; very stable (no kernel
panics, or wierd crashes of software).  At the same time, I've decided
I'll be moving this server back to Debian now that Sarge is out so that
I don't have to update it every 6 months with new major package
versions.  Now, if I were a consultant and got paid hourly to do
updates.... sounds like a good plan to me :).

-David
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