Why so heavy on Ubuntu?

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colonoob

New Member
Oct 27, 2014
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I've never really considered Ubuntu as a server OS. It's an OK desktop (mint is better).

Isn't RHEL, CentOS, SLES considered the really stable Linux server versions?

Why would you use Ubuntu server for a server benchmark like Linux-Bench?
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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Canonical (Ununtu) and Redhat (RHEL/Centos) are both rock solid distros. It's sort of a game of leap frog right now which one is 'better'.

IMHO, Ubuntu did a really good job releasing a well integrated version of their 'Long Term Support' release train with 14.04lts while Redhat kinda blew it with RHEL/Centos 7 because they didn't get some outside repositories integrated right.

For now, in general, Ubuntu 14.04 is ahead...this is likely to change in the future.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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@colonoob - Ubuntu is not exactly a fringe distribution in the server world. Now, arguing distributions is like arguing politics or religion.

That said, Ubuntu is extremely popular as a server OS. A nice test is go to Amazon AWS and see the available community AMIs. As I am typing this:
CentOS: 1204
Ubuntu: 14434
RedHat: 1533

HP Moonshot ARM modules were recently announced shipping Ubuntu by default.

The reason Ubuntu was chosen is because Linux-Bench started as a Ubuntu benchmark and then @Chuckleb managed to get it working with the LiveCD which makes it relatively easy to run.
 

vdrey

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Jul 24, 2014
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From my perspective as a server über n00b, I like using Ubuntu simply because of how popular it is—if I encounter a problem, it is easy to find a trouble shooting guide or a relevant stack exchange question, which hasn't necessarily been true with other distros.
 

Mike

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May 29, 2012
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Ubuntu is just Debian in a clown suit as far as I can see. :)
I used to share that opinion but have to rethink that one since all the politics with Debian.
With all distros going Systemd, atleast for now, the difference will become even smaller. RHEL generally gets a bit more enterprise love while you are nowhere without extra repositories, so much for your stability.
Debian is trying their own 'LTS' releases starting with Wheezy?

A distro that got me a bit more excited over the last couple of months is Suse with Btrfs, Snapper, ...