If you were going to run a mission critical server -- would you choose Ubuntu?

[kevdog]

I'm thinking Debian might be my choice for a mission critical server. Any other opinions?

[myusername]

yeah i would go debian. very very very stable

[sujoy]

debian, freeBSD, slackware

[ibutho]

Personally I would go for RHEL/CentOS or Debian because of their stability. FreeBSD would also be a very good choice. For me Ubuntu Server is not yet as mature and stable as the OSes I have mentioned.

[Moustacha]

Redhat has that reputation, whereas Ubuntu hasn't made it there yet in the server market. When people say 'Ubuntu', others think 'desktop'

[Luke has no name]

CentOS, Debian or FreeBSD for really important servers. Ubuntu would serve less critical ops until my team and/or I felt it was ready, or found sufficient customer reviews to deem it so.

[earthpigg]

i wonder how much tweaking Wikipedia did to vanilla Ubuntu Server prior to their deployment a few months back?

(Wikipedia dumps Red Hat for Ubuntu (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/13/wikimedia_goes_ubuntu/))

[toupeiro]

Debian, RHEL, Ubuntu.. Its all the same core... THAT is what makes it stable. If I were running a mission critical server, it would be hardened and streamlined as far as the apps go anyway... The question is, if you had to run a Mission critical server, would you do it on a UNIX/Linux platform, or a Windows Server 2008 platform?

[koenn]

Debian, RHEL, Ubuntu.. Its all the same core... THAT is what makes it stable. If I were running a mission critical server, it would be hardened and streamlined as far as the apps go anyway... The question is, if you had to run a Mission critical server, would you do it on a UNIX/Linux platform, or a Windows Server 2008 platform?

Any particular reason why you would consider Windows ?

[koenn]

I'm thinking Debian might be my choice for a mission critical server. Any other opinions?

for mission critical, I'd choose either a distro that I'm comfortable with so I know that I'd be able to deal with most issues myself, or one that comes with serious support / SLA. That makes it a choice between Debian and Redhat, and it would also depend on the services or applications that server has to provide.

Ubuntu would be 3rd choice. I'm comfortable with it and it comes with (optional) professional support, but it feels too new still. I would only consider a LTS release (upgrading a server every 6 months is madness) and would only pick Ubuntu over Debian or Redhat if Ubuntu shows a distinctive advantage in relation to the server's role and functionality.

Lastly, it would also depend on the other servers you already have, or may have in the future. It make sense to stick with one distro, maintenance/management-wise.

[kernelhaxor]

for mission critical, i'd choose either a distro that i'm comfortable with so i know that i'd be able to deal with most issues myself, or one that comes with serious support / sla.

+1

[Dr Small]

I've used Ubuntu on my server and have not had any problems that were not hardware related. I would use it for mission critical.