We use CentOS around here, but I have been talking to some people and they claim that Debian is actually better. They all tell me the same thing, there is more support for it. Besides that, anyone else is experience enough to tell me the details why you think Debian is better and why we should contemplate moving to Debian Linux OS? Thanks :aloha:
CentOS or Debian OS, Wich Is Better?
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sirgold
BANNED
- Jun 25, 2010
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Debian is close to be the best you can get for stability (3 branches to it + BSD based kernel), architectures supported, testing, community, package selection OOTB and last but not least packaging tool. In my previous IT career I stumbled upon a few commercial server drivers that were distro-centric (some certified on RedHat server or Novell SuSE), especially for HD controllers, raid, scsi, optical interfaces and so on, but proprietary vendors can't generally neglect debian even when they do not directly support it, because the serverside user-base is so wide, they'd end up doing more harm than good. Conversely they might -and possibly will- ignore gentoo, arch or other "niche" oriented distros. Your mileage may vary, but debian is really the way to go in my opinion.
fatboy
Elite Member
- Aug 13, 2008
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I use Ubuntu for hosting on my VPS, always upto date on packages.
CentOS is getting beyond a joke with staying up to date, not sure what the PHP version in 5.5/5.6 is but 5.1.3 was shipping as standard when I was using it!
Guess it will also depend on if you are thinking about using any of the big name control panels - for example cPanel will need something like CentOS.
CentOS is getting beyond a joke with staying up to date, not sure what the PHP version in 5.5/5.6 is but 5.1.3 was shipping as standard when I was using it!
Guess it will also depend on if you are thinking about using any of the big name control panels - for example cPanel will need something like CentOS.
- May 17, 2010
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CentOS is the free version of RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), it is basically a slightly older version of RHEL
I LOVE CentOS, it is open source, highly supported, and so similar to RHEL, that for many common problems you can use both the RHEL and CentOS communities. I do not know much about Ubuntu, I have never personally used it. I know that the majority of web hosts and web hosting providers use CentOS and it rocks
I LOVE CentOS, it is open source, highly supported, and so similar to RHEL, that for many common problems you can use both the RHEL and CentOS communities. I do not know much about Ubuntu, I have never personally used it. I know that the majority of web hosts and web hosting providers use CentOS and it rocks
fatboy
Elite Member
- Aug 13, 2008
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I know that the majority of web hosts and web hosting providers use CentOS and it rocks
Most hosts use it IF they are using cPanel / Directadmin etc as those control panels are only supported by certain distros.
If you want to go solo without any GUI, CentOS, in my opinion, is a pain in the ass when you look at default packages.
Ubuntu comes with hardened PHP which is a recent version and is easy to update. Try looking at CentOS 5.3 / 5.4 and the PHP version that comes with it.
Thats why CentOS will never sit on a VPS I own
audioguy
Power Member
- Jun 12, 2010
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If you plan on using cPanel, last time I read CentOS supports it better.
Ubuntu is also Debian-based, and I use it for all my VPS. But I don't use cPanel or any web control panel at all, so can't say about its compatibility or if there's any issue at all.
The reason I pick Ubuntu every time is because they offer an LTS version. Not sure if others offer that too, but with that, I have 5 year support of fresh and updated packages. I build all my VPS with Ubuntu LTS so I can rest assured my servers are rock solid for a long time to come and focus on my business.
Just my two cents.
Ubuntu is also Debian-based, and I use it for all my VPS. But I don't use cPanel or any web control panel at all, so can't say about its compatibility or if there's any issue at all.
The reason I pick Ubuntu every time is because they offer an LTS version. Not sure if others offer that too, but with that, I have 5 year support of fresh and updated packages. I build all my VPS with Ubuntu LTS so I can rest assured my servers are rock solid for a long time to come and focus on my business.
Just my two cents.
timothywcrane
Supreme Member
- Apr 25, 2009
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It really depends, as is always the answer to the "best distro" question. I think that it really doesn't matter all that much if you plan on hand compiling your installations, as all distros aresimply a kernel and a selection of packages. The main reason to choose on distro over the other is if you DO NOT plan on compiling your own installs, as the packages and manager is distro dependant. Red Hat/CENTOS distros use the rpm package format, and usually YUM as the package manager in CENTOS. Debian/Ubuntu use .deb package installers with the dpkg manager (which is based on apt-get).
rpm packages are less reliable in IMHO as you can easily wind up in what is called dependency hell (google it), while apt-get or dpkg is a lot better at dependency filling and updating.
If you plan on setting up a single system with a set group of software installed, then I would go with the one you are most familiar with and offers the package versions that you need for the functions you need most, and then tweak it from there.
If you are going for true stability, then it really shouldn't matter, as you should compile your programs by hand using make-install which is available on all distros and will compile specifically for your platform and provide the best stability with any distro also.
This is never an easily answered question, but I hope this helps a little.
I personally prefer .deb based systems, as you can tell for the abover reasons, but with Linux, you should find your own reasons and follow them, as this is what Linux does best, custom platforms suited to your own options.
rpm packages are less reliable in IMHO as you can easily wind up in what is called dependency hell (google it), while apt-get or dpkg is a lot better at dependency filling and updating.
If you plan on setting up a single system with a set group of software installed, then I would go with the one you are most familiar with and offers the package versions that you need for the functions you need most, and then tweak it from there.
If you are going for true stability, then it really shouldn't matter, as you should compile your programs by hand using make-install which is available on all distros and will compile specifically for your platform and provide the best stability with any distro also.
This is never an easily answered question, but I hope this helps a little.
I personally prefer .deb based systems, as you can tell for the abover reasons, but with Linux, you should find your own reasons and follow them, as this is what Linux does best, custom platforms suited to your own options.